We’ll Address Herder/Farmer Crisis – Ugbor

Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Environment, Hon Terseer Ugbor, said his office had held a stakeholders’ forum and premiered a documentary on the impact of climate change on the farmers-herders crisis to find a lasting solution to the country’s perennial socio-economic problems.

Ugbor, who is a member representing Kwande-Ushongo Federal Constituency of Benue State, said the documentary titled;

“Behind the Valley,” which premiered at a recent stakeholders’ engagement, is an initiative of his office to showcase the challenges faced by farmers across Benue and North/Central as a whole, as well as other parts of Nigeria.

He said the approach was also aimed at attracting support and funding from international and local communities to ameliorate the issues of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and conflicts in the region, empower people with modern agricultural practices and climate-smart agriculture, and aid them with better homes where they can start new lives.

The lawmaker who spoke with journalists in Abuja noted that the initiative considered capacity building, peacebuilding, and engagement between farmers and herders, traditional rulers, and community leaders to see how the farmer-herder crisis could be resolved.

“The event a few days ago was to launch this documentary and present the concept note, which we did, and it got excellent reviews. It was well attended, and we already have partnerships and calls from several development organisations that have shown interest in collaborating with my office and seeing that we can implement this programme.

“How can we take this message to the international community at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly and the climate conference in Azerbaijan later this year? With what we have done so far and the interest that our initiative has generated, we are on the right track towards, at least, making a mark on the issue of herders/farmers conflict in Nigeria,” Ugbor said.

He also supported the proposed Ministry of Livestock by President Bola Tinubu’s administration, saying it would look at the issue of livestock very holistically and, in the long term, help to reduce the problems of farmer-herder conflicts in the country.

Ugbor said his concern was to see a situation where there is more enlightenment and capacity building for farmers and herdsmen in the country to live in a mutually beneficial relationship with little or no conflict so that everyone can flourish in his or her trades.

The lawmaker said that while his initiative may be a long-term solution, in the immediate future, the federal government needs to Negotiate between farmers and herders in the country and improve security and protection for farmers so they can return to their farms.

“Security is paramount in achieving these things, but we decided to look at it from the humanitarian perspective and the displaced persons angle. When we surveyed the situation, we found out that over 100,000 people have been displaced so far just in the last year in Benue, and statistics show that over two million people have been displaced across the country due to farmers-herders conflicts.

“So, one of the areas that I decided to look at is how we help these displaced people to be resettled back to their communities and then go back to their farming activities with more security cover.

“We are engaging with the state governments and the federal government. We have recently engaged with the Nigerian Immigration Service in Benue to set up a command at the border between Nigeria and Cameroon because if you look at the Cameroon border in Benue State, there is no border post, no Immigration, and no security present. The next border post from Benue is in Adamawa State, which is over 2,000 kilometres away.

“So there is a wide range of space without security. So the herders, the bandits and traffickers and all kinds of people have an easy flow into these farming communities and cause the destruction that we are witnessing,” he noted.

The Deputy Chairman of the House’s Environment Committee said they were appealing to and engaging with the relevant government agencies to take security seriously and help resettle the people back to their farmland so that they could return to their homes and farmlands in the next one or two years.

“We also hope that the government can invest more in storage and processing facilities in the country because we have found that even in the situation of farmers-herders conflicts, the little farming that is going on, almost half of the produce is wasted, and there is very little value addition to the crops that we produce in the country as a whole, especially in the north-central and Benue.

“As you know, Benue is the highest producer of yams, pineapples, oranges, groundnuts, and so many other products in the country. But how well have we added value to these agricultural products so that we can earn more from them; our farmers can earn more from their farming activities,” the lawmaker added.

Ugbor said contrary to the belief by many that the farmers-herders crisis was just a jihad by the predominantly Fulani Muslims to capture the Benue Valley- North-central, it was more of a climate change issue as well as an economic war to grab land and water for animal husbandry.

“When you look at the problem from a narrow prism. But when you broaden your scope a little bit, you discover that the problem is more than just a narrow problem of genocide. It’s a broader problem. From our studies, we found that it is a struggle for land and water. It is an economic war being waged by the, like you mentioned, the predominantly Fulani herders, to grab land and water for their sustenance and the sustenance of their livestock.

“So what we have decided to do is to look at this issue from a broader perspective. Why is there a sudden migration of herdsmen into the Northcentral? When we took a holistic study of the problem, we found that the problem is not just about the genocide happening on the ground. It is a problem of climate change. The Lake Basin has dried up by 80% to 90%. The Lake Chad Basin used to support almost 40 million Africans. Most of this Lake has dried up.

“So, most of the people that depended on this Lake, significantly the herders, have been displaced and had to leave their communities in search of greener pasture. Then, we looked at the problem of desertification in the north and how this has also pushed herders to be displaced and to move southwards in search of greener pastures.

“Then, of course, we looked at the banditry issue up north and cattle rustling up north. So, this issue of climate change, terrorism, and banditry that have played out in our country, especially in northern Nigeria, have all come together to push herders down south, which led to a lot of the increased conflict that you see today,” he added.