The national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has reacted to the recent crisis between crop farmers and herders in Nigeria.
Tinubu, on Saturday, backed the ranching system as a way to end the near perennial herdsmen-farmers clashes being recorded in the country.
In a statement titled, ‘Tinubu’s Statement On The Herder Crisis,’ the APC chieftain said nomadic herders in the country must realize that they are fighting a “losing battle against modernity and climate change”, and so, must embrace a ‘sedentary’ mode of cattle-rearing.
He also lamented that those who should know better were the ones inciting farmers and herders to clash in the country.
Of late, nomadic herders in parts of the country, especially in the South-West geopolitical zone, have been accused of trespassing on farmlands of host farmers with their cattle. Farm produce worth millions of naira have been destroyed in the last few months. Some herders have also been accused of raping women in host communities, kidnapping the rich, and in some cases, killing host residents, amongst other unprintable crimes.
Many leaders in Yorubaland including a chieftain of a socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, had said Tinubu was afraid to speak on the herders’ crisis because he does not want to jeopardize his 2023 presidential ambition and because he does not want to offend the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
But the former Lagos State governor broke his silence on the matter on Saturday. In the statement by his spokesman, Tunde Rahman, Tinubu said, “The herder-farmer dispute has taken on acute and violent dimensions. It has cost too many innocent lives while destroying the property and livelihoods of many others. It has also aggravated ethnic sentiment and political tension.
“Despite the efforts of some of those in positions of high responsibility and public trust, the crisis has not significantly abated. Sadly, others who should know better have incited matters by tossing about hate-tainted statements that fall dangerously short of the leadership these people claim to provide. We all must get hold of our better selves to treat this matter with the sobriety it requires.”
