Communal clashes and reprisal killings over scarce grazing land and water resources have plagued the north central zone of the country for decades. While Benue and, to some extent, Nasarawa states are also impacted badly by bloody disputes between herders and farmers, Plateau state has since become the epicentre of this violent crisis that has laid waste to the country’s food basket.
No fewer than 52 people have been killed and scores of others injured in a series of attacks on several communities in the Bokkos local government area of Plateau State that started last Wednesday. “With the current situation in Bokkos, we expect more people, especially women and children, to flood the IDP camps,” said Bishop Ayuba Matawal, Chairman of the Bokkos IDPs Welfare Committee. “We already have a large number of displaced persons even before this latest attack. Farming is no longer an option in these areas because people are too afraid to return.”
Since 2001, the once peaceful State, with a glorious climate, has been embroiled in ruinous and costly communal clashes that have consumed thousands of lives and displaced tens of thousands. While the state has many ethnic groups, the clashes are mainly between Muslim Fulani herders and farmers who are predominantly Christians, hence the ethno-religious nature of the crisis. But the crisis is also assuming the colour of land-grabbing. At last count, more than 12,000 lives have been wasted while the local economy is bleeding. As a measure of resolving the crisis, a local special task force, codenamed ‘Operation Safe Haven’, has been deployed to the state since 2001, but it has remained largely ineffectual with the incessant killings that now define the state.
Although the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, met with stakeholders in the state last week, efforts at both the federal and state in resolving the crisis have been half-hearted. The security forces have not provided much cheer as they often arrive at scenes of violence after the damage has been done. Indeed, some have been implicated in the past for taking sides.
Even community leaders, as well as political and religious leaders who ordinarily should help in bringing peace and order, are mostly often the ones leading the rhetoric of hate, which fuels the cycle of violence. Meanwhile, failure to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators of the heinous crimes in Plateau State and elsewhere seem to encourage the propensity for violence as a means of redressing perceived grievances.
It is indeed scandalous that since the escalation of the crisis from 2011, and despite the rising body count, not a single person has been successfully prosecuted and convicted for the several murders that have traces of a pogrom. It is, therefore, our recommendation that the government must bring to justice all those who use unlawful means to settle scores, even as it strives to remove the fundamental basis of the strife that plagues the area.
As we have repeatedly said, the solution to the persistent violence on the Plateau lies in
addressing headlong the problem of open grazing. It is time to end the indiscriminate grazing of farmlands by cattle in Plateau State, and indeed across the country.
Many countries in Africa like Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, and Ethiopia have long embraced ranching and it is paying off. It is the trend across the world. There is a crying need for the nation to promote ranching, which would allow pastoralists access to a large expanse of land for grazing without encroaching on farmers’ land.
However, as the violence across the North central slid into chaos, it is difficult to fault the conclusion that criminals seem far ahead of the security agencies. That is what should worry the federal government.
