Ime Akpan
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has faulted the federal government’s proposed establishment of Rural Grazing Areas (RUGA) saying it is capable of having devastating consequences if it is not handled properly.
Speaking in Lagos yesterday at the launch of United Nations’ Solutions 17 SDG Programme, Soyinka said the cattle herders were being given a sense of impunity adding that President Muhammadu Buhari deserved to have lost the last election for the lackadaisical attitude he took to the issue of cattle rearing in the country.
He declared: “People have been killed in hundreds just because of the failure of leadership at a critical time. And the cattle herders have been given a sense of impunity. They kill without any compunction; they drive away the farmers who have been contributing to the food solutions in the country; the cattle eat their crops and then you come up with Ruga.
“I think that there is going to be trouble in this country if this Ruga thing is not handled imaginatively and with humanity as priority. Any country where cattle take priority over human life is definitely at an elementary stage.
“Ruga is going to be an explosion if not handled with care. But why do we not take our policies from good models? This is not the way people and countries deal with issues of cattle.
“I travel everywhere. It has to be handled in a way that is logical, comprehensible to the environment. When a cattle walks up to the window of my house in Abeokuta, a house which is located in a residential area, then there’s a problem.
“When cattle go to Ijebu Ode and eat up their plant seedlings and so on and you expect people to be quiet?”
Meanwhile the Rivers State government said the state has no land for the Ruga project.
The permanent secretary in the ministry of information, Mr. Paulinus Nsirim, said in a statement that the state governor, Mr. Nyesom had prioritised commercial agriculture hence all available arable land in the state would be needed to drive commercial agriculture across the state to create employment for the youths.
He added that the state government had not given any approval for the sighting of Ruga settlements anywhere in Rivers State.
He also said the governor would continue to defend the interest of Rivers people, who had overwhelmingly rejected cattle colonies, Ruga settlements and any such policy.
“Rivers indigenes are hereby advised to join the state government to protect all arable lands by reporting any form of encroachment under whatever guise,” the statement added.
The Igbo apex socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, is unrelenting in its attack on Buhari accusing him of jettisoning the rule of law to favour his kinsmen.
President General of Ohanaeze, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, said in an interview that the federal government’s violation of provisions of the constitution on the administration of land in Nigeria is a clear pointer to anarchy.
“The Federal Government’s total violation of valid laws made by Benue State Government in accordance with her inherent powers under our constitution and its violations of extant court judgment on grazing and ranching is a clear pointer to anarchy,” he said.
For its part, the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, said the federal government’s insistence on the implementation of the Ruga project was meant to elevate the Fulani above other ethnic groups in the country.
Punch quotes the spokesman for the group, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, as saying that the government by its action was promoting ethnic hatred in the country.
“If there is anyone that is perpetrating ethnic hatred, it is the government. When you promote one ethnic group over the others, is that not ethnic hatred?
“I think Garba Shehu has been engaging in promotion of ethnic chauvinism aimed at elevating the Fulani. He has become the spokesman for the Fulani in Nigeria and the way he speaks using uncouth, foul language on people is unfortunate.”
Odumakin challenged the presidency to disclose the names of the governors who signed up for the Ruga policy
The Urhobo Progress Union said in its reaction that they “will resist plans to cede our land to strangers,” and urged the federal government to shelve the implementation of the Ruga settlement project.
Spokesman for the group, Mr. Abel Oshevire said in a statement that the scheme is a subtle plan by the federal government to forcefully seize land from other ethnic nationalities for the herdsmen.
He said the Urhobo people of the Niger Delta region would vehemently oppose the establishment of Ruga settlement in any part of their communities or kingdoms.
Also reacting, the president general of Mdzough U Tiv, (the Tiv socio-cultural group), Chief Edward Ujege, dismissed the claim that the opposition to Ruga was political or promotion of ethnic hatred.
Ujege noted that the people of the state had not forgotten the antecedent of the Fulani whom he said are domineering in nature.
He noted that Benue State would not allow its land to be converted to emirates.
“This is the second time the Fulani are coming to take our land. Some years ago, they came. We fought and defeated them,” he said.
However, the secretary of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Mr. Anthony Sani said the Ruga project would stem the tide of the herders-farmers clashes in the country.
“We actually do not understand why those opposed to open grazing by nomads are the ones who are also opposed to the concept of Ruga that is not more than a large settlement for nomads as a precursor to establishment and management of the preferred ranches which will not only bring about improved volume, quantity and quality of livestock, but also help in taming clashes between herdsmen and farmers,” he said.
In Gombe, the state governor, Mr. Inuwa Yahaya, applauded the project saying initiating settlements and grazing reserves for pastoralists and providing other required needs of their families and animals would end the persistent disputes between them and farmers.
With Punch, ThisDay reports
