The most powerful institution in human affairs since the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 is the state; and perhaps the government, which is the primary agency of the state. This Peace that put an end to the Thirty Years War in Europe led to the emergence of the state as we have it today. The primary responsibility of the government is the protection and the welfare of the citizens. While patriotism is to be rewarded, criminality must also be severely punished.
However, in some weak states there are some extra state forces that could be more powerful than the government and render it almost totally useless and of no consequence. In the 1970s, Aldo Moro, the Prime Minister of Italy was kidnapped and killed by the Mafia gang. Also, in South America, at times, the drug cartels are more powerful than the government. Among others, weak and purposeless leadership is usually a major cause of the paralysis of the state. Again, when a group of criminal gangs are protected by the powers of state, they usually become monsters that might be very difficult to tame. At the initial stage, the Boko Haram insurgents were created and used by the North East governments. But later, the whole of the Nigerian security forces cannot defeat them.
Beginning from 2015, a group of killer herdsmen began to emerge as a criminal and political force, killing, maiming and setting villages ablaze without any form of reprisals. Progressively, they metamorphosed into bandits and started kidnapping for ransom. Today, kidnapping has become arguably the most lucrative business in the country. On the high ways, personal houses and schools, kidnapping is gradually becoming an integral part of the Nigerian national life. Beginning from 2014 when about 270 female secondary students from Chibok in Borno State were kidnapped, the problem has been growing in leaps and bounds. In February 2018, 110 secondary school girls were kidnapped in Dapchi in Yobe State, in 2020, 343 students were kidnapped in Katsina State while President Mohammadu Buhari was on vacation in the State, in 2021, 279 female secondary students were also abducted in Zamfara State and 27 students were also kidnapped in Niger State and with about 13 of their teachers. With all this insecurity in schools in Northern Nigeria, what then is the future of education in the region? This is a region where about twelve million kids of school age are out of school. This calls for serious concern as a result of the organic relationship that exists within the country. Insecurity in one zone is insecurity for all.
The crisis in the South West with the herdsmen is as a result of cumulative years of leadership failure in the country. There is no civilised country in the world today where you have open grazing of cattle. This is not the case in Europe, the United States and many other developing countries. The progressive migration of the herdsmen southwards due to adverse global climatic change is a challenge that requires a holistic government approach in order to find an amicable solution to the problem. This is beyond what just one tier of government could do.
Before 2015, the herdsmen have been living peacefully with their host communities in the south. But gradually they started becoming violent, killing with impunity and openly boasting they would kill more. In 2018, the Amnesty International (AI) reported that they killed close to four thousand Nigerians between 2015 and 2018 without any of them being brought to Justice. No doubt, this is a crime against humanity that some individuals could face trial at the International Criminal Court at the Hague some day. Since 2018 when the AI report came out, these herdsmen have not stopped killing. Rather, they are more emboldened by the day. The whole situation has now even reached a ridiculous dimension that some folks are now asking for clemency and amnesty. This is indeed laughable. You give amnesty to murderers. And in a globalized age where every action of government and the state is within full international glare. Is it, therefore, any wonder that rather than foreign companies coming to invest in Nigeria, there is massive foreign disinvestment from the country? After Somalia and Afghanistan, the Northern Nigeria is the most dangerous place on earth.
The rational question at this point is: what is to be done to bring sanity to Nigeria, especially between the herders and their host communities in the south west? For more than five years now, these herdsmen have been killing with impunity and without facing trial. It is this lawlessness that produced Sunday Igboho and others like him who are trying to do the work of the police for them. It is also these mindless killing that provided the remote cause for the Shasha carnage in Ibadan.
To be sure, majority of the herders in the south west are law abiding citizens. But, in as much as the criminal elements among them are not brought to justice, all of them face the possibility of being profiled as killers and criminals. Just on 7 March, 2021, these herders killed two farmers in Isaba town in Ikole Local Government of Ekiti State. This is what the south west witnesses every day. The first step, therefore, is to put an end to these killings and the killers brought to justice. Until this is done there can not be peaceful co-existence between the herders and their host communities.
After the government has summoned enough courage and political will to arrest and prosecute these criminals, there must be confidence building measures between the herders, farmers and the political, traditional and leaders of thought in the south west communities in order to promote peaceful co-existence among the people. Ultimately, open grazing is no longer sustainable, but its ban must be gradual. The herders should be given about a year to put their house in order. Immediate ban for now will put them in a very difficult situation.
However, the reckless and the unguarded vituperations of the Myetti Allah leaders urging the herders to disobey the governors of the South West on their Anti-Open Grazing is reckless and they must be arrested for sedition if this happens again.
Meanwhile, while the peaceful approach is going on, these governors must strengthen the OPC and the Amotekun Security outfit across the region to deal decisively with any form of criminality in the region. There is no group of people that have monopoly of nuisance. You can’t be raping innocent women and killing their husbands and sons without consequences.
Nigeria is currently at the crossroads and the only sensible approach is to pursue peace and peaceful co-existence within the framework of justice, rule of law and respect for the sanctity of human life.
A word is enough for the wise.
Toba Alabi is a Professor of Political Science and Defence Studies at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna
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