TheCable

BY ADAMS ABONU

Reading the acerbic diatribe bearing the language and imprimatur of a machinery in the presidency though supposedly written by Tope Ajayi last Saturday on this reputable medium directed at Benue Governor Samuel Ortom, one is compelled by force of conscience and sheer concern to join issues with the writer on the fallacious grounds he attempted to raise in the said article. This rejoinder is borne out of the need to set the records straight and properly situate the raging insecurity ravaging the good people of Benue and across the entirety of Nigeria which the governor had assumed a rallying point against.

To an unbiased observer devoid of any illusion of grandeur, Governor Ortom does not harbour any sentiment against the Fulani ethnic nationality, nor does he hate the Fulani man as the obviously prejudiced writer asserted in the originating opinion. Historically, the Fulanis and Tivs enjoyed a harmonious relationship over the decades. The Fulanis, whose predominant occupation is animal husbandry, chose a nomadic lifestyle and seek the fertile grasses of the Benue to meet the needs of feeding their herds of cattle.

The Tivs, Idomas, and other indigenous people of the north-central demonstrated hospitality by accepting these herdsmen from up north and a budding affair ensued. Trouble only began when some mischievous element within the folds of these Fulani herdsmen started allowing their animals to ravage the crop farms of indigenous farmers in a bid to rid them of their means of subsistence. The local farmers’ resistance to these excesses from the herdsmen begun to be met by retaliations that led to the loss of lives and properties in its wake.

These skirmishes took a recurrent proportion and actually predate the days of Samuel Ortom as governor of Benue. While the administration of Governor George Akume did its best at the time to manage the situation- best efforts that were never enough- the twilight of the Suswam administration saw a dangerous transmutation of the pockets of skirmishes to large scale massacre of Benue people by marauding herdsmen. When Ortom assumed office in May 2015, his body language and disposition towards the festering crises indicated a clear message that kids’ gloves were not needed in confronting the dire issue at hand.

The resurgence of violence and oppression against Benue people perpetrated by nomadic herdsmen took a dangerous turn when the oppressors realised that a man of exemplary courage had come to the stage. To stem these tides of anarchy, the Benue State House of Assembly considered and passed an Open Grazing Prohibition Bill which the governor subsequently signed into law. Suffice to mention that this bill, from proposition through to its passage into the laws of Benue, had the inputs of the people who were happy that a panacea to their common predicament was being berthed. When Tope Ajayi and his co-travellers on their path of deliberate misinformation wants people to believe that this law targeted Fulani herdsmen and their cattle, in reality, the law prohibited open grazing by any animals, including those owned by Benue farmers in its letters. It’s in good order that this writer agreed to the ‘’archaic destructive and crises-ridden system of rearing cattle’’ that the law seeks to correct.

For a man who swore an oath to protect the lives and properties of the people of Benue, Governor Ortom’s resolute defiance to distraction and campaigns of calumny against him in the implementation of the Open Grazing Prohibition law should not be source of concern to any right-thinking person who means well for the peace and unity of Nigeria. That the Southern Governors Forum, a cross-political platform of governors from southern Nigeria, met and adopted the Benue model and are already replicating it in their states is an endorsement of this thoughtful intervention.

To set the record straight, the solution to the recurrent issue of farmers/herders clashes is not even the ‘Grazing Reserves’ or routes being currently touted by the President Buhari-led federal government. While notable Nigerians and voices of reason like the venerable Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, erudite law lord and Senior Advocate of Nigeria Femi Falana had spoken against the impropriety of the proposition, the existing laws of the federal government vested the management of land tenures on the shoulders of individual states in the Land Use Act. It would be tantamount to tyranny and oppression to force states to accept a policy that would be an affront to the law.

When Governor Ortom declared recently that he and his Benue people would resist any draconian imposition of Grazing reserves by the federal government with the last drop of blood, he was only expressing the views of majority of the people of Benue whose lives have been made worse by the pervading insecurity in the land.

Agreeing that the beef industry has vast economic fortunes for Nigeria if properly harnessed, the way to go about milking this calf should not be at the expense of the life of the people of Benue and any other state that is currently embroiled in the herdsmen imbroglio. In safer climes like Brazil and Canada where provisions are made for Grazing Reserves, there are efficient legal frameworks in the management of the vast areas of land dedicated to this purpose. Governor Ortom in his honest commitment towards improving the economy of beef business encouraged ranching and had not stopped anyone from coming to Benue to purchase land and tend to their businesses.

On the allegation of a ‘Fulanisation’ agenda against President Buhari that his spokesman Garba Shehu and the likes of Senator Akume has chosen to misconstrue, all that is necessary is for the powers that be to show that the sanctity of Nigerians’ lives is of any priority. When bandits, who are majorly herdsmen terrorises with reckless abandon, one is tempted to think that there could be an agenda. The resort to tainting the character of the person and office of the governor of Benue because of his stand for justice is really unbecoming.

While it’s understandable that the performance of any state governor should be of utmost public interest, it’s the prerogative of the people of Benue to measure the performance of Governor Ortom who, interestingly, has left indelible footprints on the sands of time. What Governor Ortom wants in the short and long run is for peace to reign in Nigeria in place of the pervading insecurity heralded by murderous Fulani herdsmen and to see the good people of Benue dwell in safety. That should not be too much to ask for though.

Abonu, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Apa, Benue state.