President Bola Tinubu appears very proactive in confronting the herdsmen crisis in Nigeria. According to a report by the Armed Conflicts Location and Events Data Project, ACLED, this crisis has claimed 8,343 lives in 1,350 attacks since 2005.

We believe this figure to be grossly conservative. The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, disclosed at a recent plenary that this crisis, which consists mainly of herdsmen attacks on farmers, farmlands, farm products, and farming communities all over the country, had taken over 60,000 lives.

The most sinister part of this crisis is that, up until today, the Federal Government has even refused to officially situate the armed herdsmen militias and their sponsors as the terrorists that the world has classified them as.

Rather, under the Muhammadu Buhari regime, individuals and communities that tried to defend themselves were targeted, and some were even dubbed “terrorists”.

Tinubu’s appointment of Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the head of the Livestock Reform Panel seemed okay because, as the Governor of Kano State, Ganduje established ranches and invited herdsmen in the South to “come home” and embrace the peaceful, modern, and more productive conduct of their business.

We urge Tinubu to listen to all stakeholders if he is to solve this problem to promote peaceful coexistence and allow the agricultural sector to play its role in fostering our food security and economic development.

The erstwhile peaceful nomadic herdsmen became violent when the places they were allowed by the landowners to graze their animals for free were converted to other uses such as farming and housing needed by the rapidly-growing human population.

Politics and religion were used to spur the attackers, who now want to grab the land by force of arms from the original owners. The official narrative – the so-called “farmers-herders clashes” – bespeaks of sinister efforts by the nomadic herdsmen to “conquer” the indigenous people and occupy their lands with their livestock.

We believe efforts should be made to help the livestock business community settle back in their states of origin or acquire lands from willing sellers.

They should also be assisted in setting up ranches, just as farmers are assisted with fertiliser and other inputs.

However, contrary to the Ganduje Panel’s opinion, we do not believe herdsmen need a special ministry. Otherwise, every occupational or business group must have theirs too.

Tinubu should not repeat Buhari’s blunders which cost the nation enormously and still failed.

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