Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
The Kogi State Director- General of Information, Grassroot Mobilisation and Sensitisation, Mallam Abdulmalik Abdulkareem ,in this interview said Governor Yahaya Bello was highly misunderstood by a segment of the state on his acceptance of the cattle colonies being proposed by the Federal Government, insisting that the governor having considered all variables meant well for the state.
Why is Kogi supporting cattle colonies as proposed by Federal Government?
The position of the government is very clear, anything good and lasting does not come easy, people are also very skeptical of change no matter how seemingly good the change is, this is human nature. However keep sentiments aside, the Fulani herdsmen have been part and parcel of our various communities. In most of our communities we have Fulani domiciled there, we go to them to buy cattle, and they bring their cow meat to us. And we buy, so the problem we are having is that in recent times there have been alleged Fulani/ farmer’s communal clashes. Those living in our midst are very sociable, docile and cooperating, we don’t have problem with them. The major problem comes from those itinerant herdsmen who migrate from one place to the other in search of greener pasture for their cattle especially during the dry season. These migrant Fulani, their cattle devour people’s farm produce and go away with impunity. I think this is where we have a critical situation not the Fulani cohabiting with us.
Does the government stand to harvest any economic benefit from it?
Now the position of the state government is this; if we are saying they should leave our midst are we putting an end to eating beef, I am sure every one of us here eat beef in his home. Are we saying good bye to cattle milk and all the allied products? These are people we have interacted and even intermarried with; we worship in the same religious homes with them without hindrance. The issue at stake is, the government says instead of throwing away the bath water and the baby let us look for a concerted effort to enhance their integration, their socialisation with us and harmonise with them.
When we do that, through those that are already integrated with us if there is any problem, we can use their leaders in the community to trace the source of the problem and find a solution to it. When the migrant cattle rearers destroy anybody’s farm, it becomes very easy to use their kits and kin who are living in our midst to trace them. We will trace them; the law enforcement agents will arrest them and hand them over to the law enforcement agencies. The state government is saying that when such development crops up, the farm that is so destroyed by the cattle would be assessed and quantified in terms of money and the Fulani man who owns the cattle that devoured the farm would be made to pay. So it is a win-win situation.
It is because the members of the public deliberately or ignorantly misunderstood the position of the government that is why they are twisting it. We should also be mindful of the fact that criminality is not an exclusive reserve of the Fulani except that in the recent times they become more involved and this is the more reason the government said let them have a designated place where they would be restricted with their animals whereby they would not be able to move beyond the designated place and if they do and anything happens they would be liable. The government will also leverage on this to collect the necessary tax from them. The ranch system is as old as the old republic. Obudu ranch was established in the 50s with similar purpose as the colony. The late Ahmadu Bello established that. The premier of the western region also established one. It is just because we did not improve on them. If we buy into the state government’s proposal we would have started the process of modernising the rearing of cattle. If we succeed we would now move to the next stage by doing it the way it is done in the advanced world. Having given them the colony and getting them restricted there, you will have stopped them from roaming about even as they used to do in the streets of Abuja the seat of power, crossing the highways and residential areas. With the colony all that would become the thing of the past. So we have to be broad minded and look at the issues rationally with open mind. We need them, they need us, and they are of some economic benefit to us just as we are to them. All that is needed is for us to look at the problem areas and resolve them.
Where will the land come from?
If you take a ride from Lokoja going to Abuja you are going to see vast virgin lands, similarly from Lokoja if you are going down south the same thing. All these lands are not being used for farming. Some of these lands in the next 100 years nobody will farm on those places. There are many Kogi indigenes that are resident in the west for the purpose of farming predominantly from Kogi central, do the lands belong to them? No.
The fact that a particular portion of land is earmarked for restricting the cattle does not make the Fulani owners of the lands. Those of them living in our midst, where they stay with their cattle they erect their huts there, can that land become their own? No.
But these people are integral part of us; we cannot do away with them. It is better to tame and curtail them rather than leaving them to stray around. When you leave them to be moving all over the place especially during the dry season they move down towards the south and later during rains you see them coming up to the north causing a lot of menace along the various communities that they cross. It is better to restrict them if we cannot stop them entirely from moving about. There is wisdom in it because by the time the colonies are created and any stray Fulani and his cattle is seen roaming he would be made to face the wrath of the law.
How will that be achieved?
The government would also come up with the law that would prevent juveniles from tending their cattle all over the place. It is better to restrict them and determine how they live with the people and then how they even manage their cattle. If we are able to achieve this first step, the next step would be how to deploy technology like in the advanced world where you don’t see cattle moving around on the streets, to help our situation here. With advancement in technology today their feeds can be planted and harvested in a matter of four days. However we have to start from somewhere.