Josef Umunnakwe Onoh
The world space is presently awash with stories, reactions and altercations trailing the January 1, 2018 orgy in Benue State, where no less than 70 persons were gruesomely murdered by Fulani herdsmen. The Federal Government has been unable to do anything about it, even though the state governor, Samuel Ortom, said the terrorists are quartered in Nassarawa State.
The New Year genocide in Benue was not the first or second time that herdsmen would shamelessly execute such dastardly act and go scot free in Nigeria. But, there are areas that the Fulani herdsmen could only go once and would have no second chance. One of such areas is Enugu state.
In 2016, when the herdsmen struck at Nimbo in Uzo-Uwani local government of Enugu State, massacring over 50 people, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of the state was branded a weeping governor because of the emotion he displayed at the scene of the incident. Little did the world know that behind his grief laid a grand design of taming a recurrence of such menace.
Whereas some people saw Ugwuanyi as a weak governor who, instead of crying was supposed to be volatile and confrontational, the meek governor went to work to articulate a non-combative approach which eliminated further herdsmen attacks on the coal city state. Ugwuanyi discovered that the vulnerability of the state to insecurity was, among other factors, a result of its location as a gateway between the North and the Eastern part of Nigeria. He realised that as trade takes place, so also does crime and so he diligently straightened the state’s security apparatus through the composition of a Peace and Security Committee.
The peace and security committee method employed by the Governor has been paying off to guard against herdsmen attacks and other criminalities. The state-wide committee is replicated in all the 17 local government areas of the state, with the central committee headed by the Governor’s Special Adviser on Security, Gen. Fred Eze (rtd), an experienced soldier who commanded Nigeria troops in Darfur.
The style of the state government is not to make noise about security, especially since it is said that security issues are not meant for public discussions. But, Eze is of the opinion that the populace should be sensitised to understand that security is about everybody.
The committee is made up of all the local governments council chairmen, herdsmen leaders under the umbrella of Miyetti-Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), state commissioner for Human Capital Development and Poverty Reduction and his counterpart in the Ministry of Agriculture. The composition is replicated in all the local governments and wards of the state. One of the jobs of the committee is to enlighten the state residents on security issues.
Before the inauguration of the committee, there were rumors of eminent herdsmen attacks in the state but after the inauguration, such rumours and tension reduced in the state. There is a code of conduct. Both the host communities and herdsmen groups are made to pay damages in the event that any of the sides is found guilty of first provocation, destruction or attack. While herdsmen pay for damaged crops, the communities pay for any cow killed and since then, the situation has been under control because of the adequate sensitisation of both parties and their subsequent understanding of the issues.
Governor Ugwuanyi, who is not used to grandstanding, faulted the upbeat expectation in some quarters that the state would have been more brazenly forceful, noting that no two states are the same. Undoubtedly, there are different leadership styles; other states could adopt their own styles and approaches but the people of Enugu State are peace-loving persons who associate with every segment of the country.
A former Inspector General of Police once described the state as the most peaceful state in Nigeria and it is the wish of Governor Ugwuanyi to continue in that direction. The state is in a strategic location that has cow routes passing through it to different parts of the country. If the state behaves in a manner that denies other states in the South-east and South-south access to the thoroughfare, it could result in chaos, considering that some of the herdsmen were even born in the state and have no other place but Enugu State as their homes.
Another strategy of the Ugwuanyi administration in containing villagers/herdsmen clashes was the setting up of vibrant vigilance groups in every community. The state commissioner for Human Development and Poverty Reduction, Mr. Obinna Mbaeke, who is in charge of the operation of vigilance security said that ever since the Uzo-Uwani and Atakwu attacks, the state made it mandatory for every community to have a neighborhood watch.
The state works with the traditional rulers and President Generals of communities, not just because of herdsmen attacks, but also of crimes such as ritual killings, robbery and kidnapping. The local government council chairmen cater for the welfare of the neighborhood groups. Some local governments bought motorcycles and other vehicles to strengthen the security outfit.
The result is that ever since then, Enugu State has been relatively calm. The vigilance groups work with Gen. Eze’s Peace and Security Committee which involves the Miyetti-Allah, traditional rulers, the Sarikis, other security agencies, down to the local governments. They are proactive in the wards and the villagers are told not to kill any cow. In Udi local government area for instance, the herdsmen once reported that their three cows were killed and after investigation confirmed it, the herdsmen were paid N1.5 million by the suspects and since then, there has not been any other problem from both sides in the area.
The neighbourhood vigilance group is one of the means through which the state government wards off crime in the state. The job of the Neighbourhood Watch is to ensure proper sensitisation, even though as human beings, they sometimes make mistakes and they are cautioned through the provisions of the law. They are not to manhandle suspects or adjudicate matrimonial cases but to concentrate purely on security and sanitation.
As the state commissioner for Human Capital Development, Obinna Mbaeke noted, “Enugu State is part of the Nigerian federation and its law cannot supersede that of the federation but we try to accommodate everybody, be you Shuwa Arab or Efik, so long as you are in Enugu State, you are protected. Security is one of the four-point agenda of the state government. The Governor bought vehicles for security and paramilitary agencies in the state. Enugu is safe, we met it safe and we will make it further safer.
What we are doing is yielding results and the way the Governor is going about it is the most sensible; that so long as you are in the state you must conform to the laws of the land.”
Onoh writes from Enugu