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Herders and farmers now share a fragile co-existence in Nigeria, further underscoring the fact that man needs the environment and the latter doesn’t need him. Tayo Olanipekun writes that effects of Climate Change on rural dwellers are quite death-dealing. He also focuses on how soil degradation brought death, sorrow and distrust.
Attacks on farmers by suspected Fulani herdsmen may have inched Nigeria closer to food shortage as killings in the agrarian communities have started having impacts on rural livelihood, findings have shown.
With over 30,000 persons displaced nationwide and 1,878 killed in Benue State alone over pasturage, the consequences can’t be more visible: over-grazed lands, abandonment of farms, depletion of yields and increase in the number of dependants in many communities.
Bloody clashes between the herders and farmers have been recurrent in the country and farmers said the population of herdsmen and their livestock has kept increasing. And this has been discovered to be having negative impacts on farm activities in Ebonyi, Enugu, Benue, Kaduna and other states around the Guinea Savannah.
Egba, an agrarian community in the Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State, is one of the communities that have had deadly encounters.
The village was, on March 15, 2015, besieged by about 800 gun-wielding suspected Fulani herdsmen in a predawn attack which left no fewer than 150 persons dead and several others injured.
“Fulani are now everywhere in Nigeria. They said only the grasses on our land make their animals flourish and reproduce faster,” said the Secretary General, Agatu Local Government Youth Forum, Ezekiel Ojepa, recently. “Their number and the population of their cattle can’t allow them feed well in the northern part of the country it seems.”
Benue, in the middle belt of Northern and Southern Nigeria, is credited with the supply of millions of yam tubers and tons of other staple food for local consumption and exportation. However, surge in the number of herders migrating south and attacks on farmers, usually brutal, have impacted negatively on food production and livelihood in that state, more especially.
One of the survivors of the Egba attack, Sunday Andrew, for instance, lost 13 members of his family in the incident. Now, he barely can fend for himself as injuries he sustained have made traditional farming as practiced in the locality impossible for him. “I didn’t just lose most of my family members. I lost the ability to feed myself,” the young farmer in his late 20s whose right hand has become mutilated lamented.
Same goes for Amodu Gabriel, 64 and Elaikwu Isaac, who also gave his age as 90. Both lost their sight, family members and the use of hands in the mayhem. They are ex-servicemen living in the community during the invasion and were only left for dead by the suspected mercenaries. Six other retired soldiers were murdered in that community and most of their houses reduced to graves where their remains were laid.
Fidelis Philip, who lost his father in the attack, also had his four-year-old son, Daniel, shot in the chest but survived on huge medical bills. As for survivors Isaac, a Lance Corporal and Gabriel, a Staff Sergeant, who left the service in 1976 and 2004 respectively, they both live on charity from distant relatives now.
The aftermaths of herders’ attacks in other parts of the country, especially at Nimbo, Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area, Enugu State, are equally bitter.
The locality, near a University town, Nsukka, is adjudged the bread basket of the state but cultivation of maize, cassava, yam, pepper, garden egg and other crops are now only being done on farm plots around the home, each less than a quarter of a football pitch.
“The farm plots can give the owners out as lazy lots but such is the size of farms the folks can now cultivate,” said a middle aged man who simply identified himself as Peter. He said they could only make do with lands at the fringes of their village because Fulani herders had now taken over their vast fertile farmlands and over grazed them.
“Fulani are still on our lands up till now grazing. They said our land is the only area their cattle can thrive” said ruefully a Nimbo community leader, Thaddeus Okenwa. “The first person they killed, his heart was removed and they also cut the small fingers of the subsequent victims.”
Going deeper into the bush for farming on lands where cattle now graze freely has become a perilious adventure, according to Okenwa, giving reasons Nimbo people have now deserted the fertile farmlands they have tilled for generations.
The case of Cyprian Eze (Not real name) also revealed the level of apprehension. The 43-year-old, now mentally deranged, lives in his parents’ house with two younger siblings. The brother, Innocent, had also gone to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, for a repeat surgery on his amputated hand during the visit.
Cyril declined talking to us. Findings, however, revealed the siblings had taken bullets and machete blows from the herdsmen during the invasion of Nimbo on April 25, 2016, in which 15 persons died for protesting the destruction of their crops by the animals.
Pastor of the Christ Holy Church, John Orajiaka, on that day, escaped being burnt alive. The church Mission House was surrounded and doused with fuel by the attackers before being torched with Orajiaka and others as well as the Reverend’s car in the compound. Their escape came when the attackers ran after Pastor Godson of the Anglican Church few metres away. Godson also dodged death by strands.
The attacks have also incited some level of suspicion directed toward Adani, a neighboring community. Some in Nimbo believe it now harbours their assailants, considering the growing population of Fulani in the former.
Subtle Climate Shock
Climate change, land degradation and expanding population go hand in hand in the northern part of Nigeria and they spur migration, says the Chairman, Pastoral Resolve Group, Alhaji Saleh.
It is estimated that between 50 and 75 per cent of states of Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara are now being affected by varying degrees of desertification. Of the country’s land area, about 580,841 km2, accounting for 63.83 per cent of total land is impinged on by desertification.
Such occurrence affects Sule, a cattle rarer, for instance. He said he had just arrived Adani from Abuja few days back. He spoke of the prospect of bringing his father’s herds from the north-central part of Nigeria, after inspection of the new area. He said, “Grasses are scarce up north.” His finding: “The lush grasses here are good and the story of destruction of crops by cows is untrue.”
An Adani chief, Ogbo Eric, however, noted that his community is having its dosage of the crisis because of the surge in herders’ population. With mechanised farming, people in the town had been able to expand their farms in large hectares. “But problems with Fulani started few years back and changed all that,” he said. “They leave cattle with underage children and allow the animals to destroy crops.”
Seven-year ostracism is what the custom prescribes as penalty for murder such as witnessed in Nimbo. However, the pastoralists temporarily moved out but suddenly resurfaced in large number at Adani.
This, in a way, alluded to climate-change-induced resource scarcity forcing the herders south. As Eric put it, “Fulani returned in large number with more destruction and their activities have made us cease being the food basket of Enugu State.”
Climate Change, adaptation, insecurity—an interplay
According to Emeka Obioha of the Department of Social Anthropology and Sociology, National University of Lesotho, conflict is likely to continue due to the increasing down-south march of the Sahara desert through the Sahelian zone of the northeast Nigeria.
And this has truly been opening up more agrarian land to grazing, “which usually marks the beginning of hostile contact between the arable agriculturists and the pastoralists,” according to the scholar.
Seriki Fulani of Uswani Local Government, Alhaji Tijani Musa, said Fulani, not being an exclusive group in most communities, are always in search of places safe for their animals. With that goal in mind, he believes the attacks in the communities may not be unconnected with the activities of armed robbers and rapists parading themselves as Fulani.
“Grazing differs from season to season and Fulani can graze to any length on the land, especially during the dry season,” explained Musa. He added that for some cow species, vegetation they can survive on is unavailable in the north, which is why herders always move them south.
This is a claim recently corroborated in Kaduna by Momale. He believes adaptation of various breeds of cattle to a grazing environment is an important factor a cattle owner would want to consider as animals are adapted to the ecological environment. “If you take cattle from Bornu or Yobe to Benue, Plateau or Kaduna State, they will all die,” he says, pointing at the suitability of humidity as a factor.
“People say pastoralists are moving from the north to the south; that is correct but not totally correct,” he notes. In Daura and Jibiya, near Niger, there is over concentration of pastoralists, just like in the central plain of Hausaland, Dougua, Kano and Markarfi, according to him.
This has led to land degradation that pushes the herders from certain areas to concentrate in other areas. This further “increases insecurity that drives pastoralists from insecure areas to more secure areas for higher concentration,” according to Momale.
Places like Birnin Gwari and Kagara, from southern part of Zamfara are no-go-areas for pastoralists in the country, due to insecurity, he says, adding, “If you take your cattle there, bandits would rustle everything.”
Terrorism is indeed a factor responsible for migration. But in Momale’s estimate, only a very few proportion of pastoralists from southern parts of Adamawa and Borno and parts of Gombe moved down the valley into parts of Taraba State. The dominant proportion of pastoralists migrated into Cameroun and Niger.
Major movements to the southern Nigeria, he argues, could have been those occasioned by cattle rustling and banditry around Zamfara and parts of Kebbi, which affected thousands of pastoralists there. Herders in this group were essentially the only ones that moved to Kwara, Oyo, Ogun as well as Benin Republic and Togo. Yet, about 70 per cent of them are not in Nigeria. “They moved to Benin Republic instead,” he adds.
Alhaji Musa already said 80 per cent of the population of cattle in Nigeria is in the northern part.
Systemic failure breeding distrust
Like the subtle ill feeling of the Nimbo residents toward their Adani neighbours hosting the perceived assailants, the Agatu also believe that the callous actions of their Idoma tenants sparked Fulani’s vengeance on Agatu communities.
Alternative narrative in Egba has it that some Idoma farmers living in Okoloko, an Agatu locality, had hired Tiv ‘mercenaries’ to defend them against the Fulani whose cattle were destroying crops. This resulted in the deaths of some herdsmen and their cows, which subsequently brought the wrath of the herdsmen.
Momale blames the escalation of conflicts on the failure of government, pastorals and farmers, saying governance helps manage the situation in Cameroun and Niger Republic where most of the migrating herders are now settled. He says the situation in Nigeria is one where “politicians make unguarded statements that break down relationships and breed distrust.”
Pastor Orajiaka, for instance, still wonders why the promises made to the church and the community by the government after the attack has not been fulfilled. The state government gave N5 million for the mass burial after the massacre.
He, however, added that the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, was among government officials who came to sympathise with the community. “He made a promise of N2 million to the church but we haven’t received anything since then.” A new pastor in church at the time, Orajiaka escaped with a pair of jeans and only N200 in the pocket. His other belongings, including certificates, were all burnt in the arson.
The traditional ruler of Umohie Autonomous Community, Akaeze, in Ivo Local Government of Ebonyi State, HRH Eze Omazi Ibo Ubani, also lamented the destruction of crops valued at about N20 million in his domain. He described 2017 as the period the community had its worst experience of destruction as he also decried government intervention in the conflict. “We wrote to the government for assistance but nothing has come,” said Eze Ubani.
After the community petitioned the local government, the matter was escalated to the state level and subsequently, to the State Security Service (SSS).
The state commissioner of police would later invite the Eze before being referred to the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS). The government resolved that farmers should adopt the policy of One Man One Hectare so as to cede some land for grazing. “Our people rejected that policy, preferring to do One Man 10 Hectares instead,” said Eze. “We farm extensively.”
Herdsmen attacks started making headlines in July 2012, after Senator Gyang Dantong and the Majority Leader of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Gyang Fulani, were murdered by suspected Fulani gunmen.
The duo were killed at Maseh Village in Riyom Local Government while attending the mass burial of over 50 persons also killed by Fulani herdsmen in villages of Barkin Ladi and Riyom Local Governments.
