A Rainbow coalition of ethnic nationalities in Nigeria has risen against the continued funding of the private business of the Fulani people by the Federal Government under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In unison, the protesting ethnic nationalities want the Buhari administration to embrace and preach ranching to Fulani herdsmen instead of funding their private business.
For the Afenifere, a pan Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, the controversial Ruga settlement programme initiated by the administration of President Buhari, himself a Fulani, has an ethnic agenda, stressing that ranching is the way to end worrisome killing by Fulani herdsmen.
Their Igbo counterpart, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) have also endorsed the call on the government to promote ranching rather than funding the private business of Fulani herdsmen.
Afenifere’s Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, said they are opposed to the Buhari administration committing the country’s resources to the private business of individuals. ‘’There are three things that will solve the problem of herdsmen killings. The first thing is that the government should stop behaving like the government of herdsmen’’, he said.
According to him, ‘’government must begin to enforce law and order and make sure that no group or people act with impunity against the other. We have cases of those who have gone at one time or another to report herdsmen’s atrocities but security forces will not take their reports because the president is the grand patron of herdsmen.
‘’That constrains security agencies from acting against them because they see it as against the president. Nigerians voted for ranching at the 2014 constitutional conference as a way out of this crisis and that those ranches should not be the business of government.
‘’Individuals should set them up because the owners of these cattle are billionaires but those who are moving the cattle labourers. If there is no ethnic agenda, which former President Olusegun Obasanjo called Fulanisation, there is no need committing government’s resources to individuals’ businesses. This is why so many people believe that Buhari is pursuing an ethnic agenda.’’
Spokesman for Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Uche Achi-Ukpaga, says ranching is the way out, pointing out that such ranches should be built in the North where the cattle are: ‘’If anyone is in government and the kind of killing, maiming and other wicked acts by the herdsmen are still going on, then you resign because you don’t have the initiative to tackle it.
‘’Our position on Ruga is that it should be cancelled and not suspended. Suspension is like keep-in-view. Some of the actions of the government are laughable. People are saying that the Sambisa Forest is large enough to accommodate all the cattle in Africa, not Nigeria alone. There is green vegetation there and government can go there to do ranching or Ruga. There is land in the North and cattle are there. Why can’t they set up whatever they want to set up there?
‘’We want Ruga to be cancelled. We don’t want it in the South. If we must do ranching, let them do it in the North where there is a large expanse of land lying fallow. Why coming to the South where the land is congested?’’
On their part, PANDEF wants the government to create an enabling environment for ranching, noting that this is the solution to the herdsmen-farmers’ conflict in the country.
While PANDEF said they will not entertain the implementation of Ruga in the South-South, stressing that herders, like other Nigerian businessmen, could buy land in any state and set up ranches, its National Secretary, Dr Alfred Mulade, urged Abuja to steer clear of the issue, adding that herdsmen, who wished to set up ranches, were free to do so.
‘’Ranching is okay but it should be left to the herders just like the way any Igboman hires a shop in any part of the country for his business. It’s purely a business venture. So, the government should steer clear of it because cattle rearing is a business just like any other business. If the herders feel the need to do ranching, they could buy land in any part of the country. The government cannot force anything down the throats of the people’’, PANDEF said.
