The President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has appealed to herdsmen and farmers across the country to maintain the peace as the National Assembly is ready to proffer lasting solution to the perennial clashes over cattle grazing.
Speaking when a group of herdsmen from Kautal Hore Socio-Cultural Association, Jigawa State branch visited him, Saraki described the perennial clashes between the farmers and herdsmen as unfortunate.
Saraki, who spoke on Thursday, 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 frequent clashes, explaining that Nigeria is not the only country where farmers and herdsmen co-exist.
He said: “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.”
Earlier, the 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.
Hadejia lamented that due to urbanisation, 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 the one hand, and the farmers on the other hand, who feel aggrieved that their farmlands and crops were lost due to the activities of the herdsmen.
Hadejia lamented that leading politicians and presidential aspirants in the country during election had made promises to provide the cattle rearers with grazing land but they all failed to deliver on the promises.
He therefore 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.
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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