• No incident in Osun, says Aregbesola
From Magnus Eze and Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has said the lingering herdsmen-farmers’ clashes across the country has no religious undertone.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the National Conference on the Transformation of Nigerian Livestock Industry, in Abuja, yesterday, Osinbajo charged participants to come up with creative approaches to finding final solutions to the issue.
The vice president, who was represented by Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said government is determined to engender an ecosystem where the herdsman and farmer can live harmoniously, devoid of clashes and killings.
“Our desire is we must sit together and actually solve our problem; quarrels, anger, abuses can’t solve it; they only worsen the matter. There is no point calling names; people read different meanings to the herdsmen conflict with farmers. Some people read religious, some read politics while some read ethnicity. It’s not exactly true; we’ve done a lot of research. And if I may say something here, I will shock many of you; a lot of herdsmen have never entered the mosque. So, it’s not true that they are agents of religion. The problem had arisen because, as a country, for too long, we paid no attention to this sector.
“Some have been asking the question, why are you taking this issue so serious, after all, keeping cattle is a private business. But, it’s not as private as it looks,” he stated. Kebbi State Governor, Abubakar Bagudu, described the conference as the right approach for putting agriculture on the right pedestal to boost the economy of the nation.
He disclosed that many of the prisoners in Kebbi were herdsmen jailed because of clashes with farmers.
The governor, therefore, urged all stakeholders to support the building of ranches and cattle colonies for herdsmen. Ebonyi State Deputy Governor, Dr. Kelechi Igwe who represented his governor, condemned the activities of kid herders, whom he said usually entered people’s farms and destroyed crops indiscriminately.
He called for the political will to address the issue.
Meanwhile, Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, yesterday, disclosed there has been relative peace between farmers and herdsmen in the state due to the setting up of a committee on peaceful co-existence between herdsmen and crop farmers in 2014.
Aregbesola, while delivering his speech at the conference in Abuja, said his administration has successfully made agriculture a special vehicle to drive the economy of the state, as an alternative to oil revenue, for development.
The governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Special Duties, Mudashir Toogun, said the need to promote and enhance communal peace and progress among the citizenry in Osun informed his administration’s decision to constitute a committee on peaceful co-existence between Fulani/Bororo and crop farmers, an initiative which, according to him, has made the state to have zero case of infractions between farmers and herders.
He said the committee’s mandate to mediate between the herdsmen and crop farmers whenever there is crisis, has contributed immensely to the relative peace being witnessed in the state which has been attested to by local and international agencies.
“Osun is today regarded as a model of harmonious relationship between herdsmen and farmers because of the successes recorded by the peaceful coexistence and conflict reconciliatory committee,” the governor said.
He said: “Efforts at conflict resolution have taken the committee round the state severally and, many times, at odd hours of the day, settling disputes and forestalling violence that would have erupted in the state between a community and farmers against the herders.
“Over 5,000 cases had been resolved amicably among the two parties with compensation paid to the affected farmers as unanimously agreed; this has greatly reduced the risks of conflicts and enhanced harmonious relationship among the citizens.”
Speaking on the theme of the conference “Transformation of the Nigeria Livestock Industry,” Aregbesola described the conference as timely, “particularly, when the focus is fully set on having a transition from oil dependence to other areas of the economy.”
He said his administration has invested hugely in beef, piggery, fishery and poultry productions, which, according to him, has been found to be a veritable tool to drive his administration’s action plans of promoting agriculture, banishing hunger, unemployment, provision of mass employment and promotion of healthy living.
“Our poultry production in the state of Osun has been tremendously transformed through the Osun Broiler Outgrowers Production Scheme (OBOPS).
“The success of the scheme led to its adoption at the national level. In all our attempts in livestock, our packages usually take cognisance of value addition, marketing and empowerment for the people, especially at the grassroots.
“Having made agriculture a special vehicle to drive our development agenda, we have stimulated the small-holder farmers to produce through a government guaranteed interest free loans and injection of fund.
“In order to further enhance the livestock industry, especially processing, in the state, efforts are on-going, in collaboration with private investor, to put in place modern abattoir complexes in each of the three senatorial districts in the state, in due course, to ensure that wholesome meat gets to our table in and outside the state.
“I am also aware that 60-75 per cent of production cost in the livestock industry goes to feed, therefore, we are working earnestly to put legislation in place to regulate feed mill industry in the state, since whatever gets into livestock comes to our table as food. There is need to safeguard the investment of our farmers in the livestock industry,” the governor stated.