Senate President, Bukola Saraki has appealed to herdsmen and
farmers across the country to maintain peace as the National Assembly is
ready to proffer lasting solution to the perennial clashes over grazing
by cattle.
Speaking on Tuesday when a group of herdsmen
from Kautal Hore Socio-Cultural Association, Jigawa State branch visited
him, the Senate President who described the perennial clashes between
the farmers and herdsmen as unfortunate, also appealed to the herdsmen
to maintain peace at all times.
According to
Saraki, “the National Assembly and all the stakeholders have been
meeting on how to ensure that there is permanent peace between the two
major groups in the nation’s agricultural system”.
He
expressed concern over the recently frequent clashes, explaining that
Nigeria is not the only country where farmers and herdsmen co-exist.
“There
must be peace. There must be peaceful coexistence and there cannot be
peace when human Lives are being wasted. The National Assembly will stop
at nothing to ensure that there is peace. We will not stop working
until there is peace between the farmers and herdsmen in this country.
Please be patient”, Saraki said while promising that the Senate will
soon come out with suggestions on how to end the conflict.
Earlier,
chairman of the group, Umar Kabir Hadejia in his speech titled, “Appeal
for an intervention” said the Fulanis are traditionally a nomadic
pastoral people who rear their cattle and sheep across the vast
territory of Nigeria as the largest nomadic group in the world.
He
lamented that due to urbanization, there has been an increasing trend
of conflict between farmers and the pastoralists largely due to the
Fulanis seeking fertile grazing lands for their developmental purposes.
This
action, he said has resulted in violent attacks and reprisal counter
attacks between the herdsmen who feel that their way of life is being
threatened on one hand and the farmers on the other hand who felt
aggrieved that their farmlands and crops were lost due to the activities
of the herdsmen.
Umar Hadejia lamented that
leading politicians and presidential aspirants in the country during
election had made promises to provide the cattle herdsmen with grazing
land but they all failed to deliver on the promises.
He said
Fulanis believe that provision of grazing reserves would boost livestock
population, lessen the difficulty of herding and reduce seasonal
migration as well as enhance the interaction among farmers, pastoralists
and other rural dwellers.
Umar Hadejia maintained that
herdsmen were not belligerent and terrorists as they are branded in the
media. He however called on the Senate committee on Agriculture to wade
into the matter with a view to coming up with an enabling law that will
protect the image and integrity of all Nigerians as well as the rights
of herdsmen to tend to their livestock
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