A former Senate president in the third republic Ameh Ebute has blamed the governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom for the escalating conflict between farmers and herdsmen in the state. He stated this at a parley with some members of the British parliament in London, United Kingdom, recently.
In a paper titled “Tackling the Violence between Livestock Farmers and Cultivators in Nigeria,” Senator Ebute asserted that the governor of Benue state had indeed exploited the situation for political advantages even at the detriment of the people he governs.
“Samuel Ortom has been completely irresponsible in the way he has tried to exploit the violence to his political advantage. He inflamed passions against the Fulanis without distinguishing Fulanis that engage in violence and the vast majority of Fulanis who are peaceful and go about the business not molesting anyone.”
“When clashes between the Agatu, an Idoma-speaking people and Fulani livestock farmers led to the death of many people in Agatu, Ortom did not show much concern. He asked the Agatu people to learn to live with the Fulanis and to cede land to them as a price for peace. However, when his people were attacked, all of a sudden, Benue no longer had “indigenous” Fulanis but simply marauding foreign invaders that must be driven out of Benue.”
He asserted that creating and arming ethnic militias or turning a blind eye to their activities is a recipe for more violence. Rather than helping to maintain peace, law, and order, ethnic militias have often aggravated the tensions between cultivators and livestock farmers.
“They create a false sense of security, and they promote an easy recourse to violence as a solution to ethnic or group tensions. Similarly, it is unhelpful for state governments to pass anti-open grazing laws that they require the federal government to enforce. In a federation, the component units of the federation should only enact laws that they can enforce on their own. The Nigerian judiciary should make an authoritative interpretation of the constitution which bars state governments from enacting laws and measures that require the exclusive powers of the central government to enforce. If this had been the case, unscrupulous state governors like Ortom would not have enactment laws that have stoked the flames of cultivators and livestock farmers’ violence.”
“Samuel Ortom exhibited traits unbecoming of a chief security officer of a state by arming militia groups. It should also be noted that the activities of the Livestock Guards employed by Ortom aggravated the tensions between cultivators and herders. Ortom armed them but he refused to pay them salaries. They then used their weapons to extort money from livestock farmers or simply seizing their cattle.”
Senator Ebute added that it is not just governor Samuel Ortom who has found it convenient to run on an anti-herder’ platform. The PDP and its presidential candidate are also depicting the election as a contest between an incumbent administration that is either unwilling or unable to tackle Nigeria’s security problems and an opposition party that understands the issue and has a plan to curtail the violence.
“Atiku Abubakar, the PDP flagbearer has threatened that if Buhari were re-elected, the violence would continue. As he noted, “So, this is a promise and a commitment I am making on behalf of PDP if you vote for PDP. I want to commit to you that if you vote for PDP, the insecurity which they have not been able to control, we shall control it.”
He canvassed for support from Britain and other western countries to extend support to Nigeria in the fight against terrorism. “Nigerian armed forces need arms, ammunition, actionable intelligence to deal with Boko Haram and other security issues. Nigeria is trying to revamp its small defense industry and cannot yet manufacture all the military equipment it needs. It is important for Britain and other international partners to supply needed weapons and materials to Nigeria. We are talking about planes, weapons, tanks, etc. Not foreign troops.”
“We urge the international community to disregard shallow and flippant explanations for the complex security situation in Nigeria and to provide Nigeria the necessary help to tackle its security issues and continue to do its best in creating a more peaceful and prosperous global system. A global system in which violence is not a way of life.”
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