TheCable

The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has condemned the crisis resulting from clashes between herders and farmers, and urged cattle owners to be more responsible for their businesses.

In a communique issued after the meeting of its national executive council (NEC) over the weekend, the organisation accused cow owners of deceiving the country, stating that since cattle rearing is a private business, they should bear the cost of ranching.

Governors across the country have expressed interest to implement the national livestock plan, which also covers adoption of ranching systems across states.

However, according to the CDHR, it is not government’s duty to cover the cost of ranching systems for cattle owners, since it is a “profitable private business”.

“If cow owners want ranches, they should acquire the land through purchase,” the communique reads.

“The CDHR appreciates that conflict of interest prevents President Buhari and his rich Fulani and other cow owing friends of his, from championing the human rights of the herdsmen; that it suits their pockets to put forward arguments that it is a cultural way of life that no outsider should interfere in. The CDHR is committed to this and calls on all Nigerians and men and women of goodwill to make this matter top priority.

“With proper orientation, the herdsman who is a worker, should come to understand that for the cow owners, cattle rearing is profitable private business. Consequently, feeding the cows is a business expense which the owners of the cows must bear, just like other business persons who own poultry farms and fish ponds.

“CDHR is resolved that cow owners must not be allowed to set Nigeria ablaze, utilising deceit and deliberate confusion of issues, by attributing their private business of cattle rearing to ‘Northerners’ and that the clash and conflict of interest between the herdsman and farmers is one between the ‘North’ and the ‘South’.

“Nigerian people from all parts of the country also need to see these issues through this prism. Given that the average Fulani herdsman cannot afford an AK47 rifle, it should be clear that it is this cow owing clique that is arming the herdsmen as part of their strategy to enforce their will, to get other Nigerians to be responsible for their business expenses.”

The CDHR also condemned the “exploitation” of herders by cattle owners, stating that it takes the country back to the slavery era.

“The herdsman has rights to found and sustain a family, and to have children who are also entitled to education and to be equipped with skills with which to serve Nigeria. The herdsman is entitled to the fruits of science and modern and newer ways of doing things, and the right to live in comfort as a matter of constitutional right,” the group said.

“Undeniably, farmers are entitled to the fruit of their toil which cow owners cannot take away with impunity. The herdsman needs to be mobilised to break away from the condemnation of living like an animal, with cows in bushes without any amenities.

“They don’t own the cows yet they have committed the entirety of their lives to tending cows, without being paid salaries.

“The herdsman must be made to recognise at this time, that the relationship between him and the owners of the cows, who live in comfort in far away cities and towns, is an exploitative one; he works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without defined terms of service. This relationship is a carryover from the slave era.”