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Insistence on open grazing retrogressive, historically incorrect –Prof. Adejo

Professor Armstrong Adejo, a professor of History at the Benue State University (BSU), Makurdi, in this interview kicked against President Muhammadu Buhari’s insistence on open grazing law, saying it is both politically and historically incorrect. He bares his mind on national issues, including the insecurity bedeviling the nation. CEPHAS IORHEMEN spoke with him

Nigeria is bedeviled with many challenges including insecurity. Do you think President Muhammadu Buhari has what it takes to confront these issues?

I think he has what it takes but he has been so slow. When the issue of herdsmen criminality began, everybody expected that he would have confronted that directly and immediately even if it’s by words of action. But he was so silent over it and allowed the instruments of the organised security to tackle this. And the state security itself, because he is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, needed a proper direction. He didn’t provide that.

There is no doubt about it. It is only now that he is coming out to say something more clearly and it is almost too late, because a lot of people have formed a perception that he is not interested, and which is wrong because there is no leader in any part of the world, irrespective of what his political leaning and ideological dispositions are, would want to chip away any block of his country deliberately.

But when you don’t act at the appropriate time, and given the nature of the cacophony of voices in this country, you know there is a lot of interpretation when there is no communication, people go into all rumour and that kind of rumour becomes a meal itself and an industry. And I think that is what has actually heightened the Nigerian perception. Secondly, either because of his nature of training, he doesn’t like statements that come from people as if it is a command. And I think as a transformed political leader that should not be the issue at all.

Even if voices are there that seem to command you as the Commander-in-Chief and you know it shouldn’t come from that angle, your own is to moderate it. If he had given a definite position to the military, to the Police and Civil Defense that this criminality must be treated as criminality, I think a lot of things wouldn’t have ballooned into what it is today.

But I think we have a responsibility. When I think about it, a lot of people politically have taken advantage of that gap. Even those who have the capacity to address issues are transferring their own responsibility to the center which is wrong. Because like anybody knows, security is not a question of top down level but a diffused issue of tackling even from the bottom is even more effective than talking about coming from the top.

So what are you saying in essence?

What I am saying in essence is that governors, because of their political lineage and also because of their local allegiance which seem to be that some of them cannot even speak authoritatively against militants and kidnappers, they must look for an excuse. And the way they speak automatically engineers a lot of things. And if individuals start speaking the way they (governors) are speaking, automatically, you can imagine what will happen if publicly a highly politically exposed person would say if this does not come to Nigeria, Nigeria will not exist. You can imagine what must have taken place outside the public circle. And the young people are ready to imbibe this culture. Already, Nigeria is experiencing so much distortion. Cultists have taken over in several parts of this country.

Let me say it (cultism) has been democratised. And so you cannot deny that no part of this country has the capacity to drive in the type of violence that can keep people in their houses. Go to the South, go to the Middle Belt, go to the North. And I think these are the ready instruments that these politicians are also mobilizing. Let us not also be oblivious of the fact that the party politics we have in this country is such that each political party simply wants to score points, not on the basis of working together with an existing structure because we are looking towards 2023. The more you discredit a particular political party, the better it is, you think.

But again, violence does not know any boundary, it has no boundary of its own, it’s like sickness. And already, everybody knows quite well that irrespective of whether you’re APC or PDP or SDP or any other political party, what is happening today has caged each and every one of us. And I think that’s why we need to mobilise effectively. Now, we begin to hear about calls for self defence, but how can one begin to defend him or herself with maybe cutlass against an AK47- welding criminal. Do you think that this call is not going to further plunge this country into more confusion? Definitely, the call to arm is a potent force for a greater level of distabilisation and violence.

If each of us starts arming ourselves, we will even become a potent problem for the next neighbour, not even to talk about national issues. People raise certain solutions under emotion and under very difficult situations that seem to be loud what will happen tomorrow. We are in a tensed situation and everybody is saying defend yourself? I think that is not a potent way to go. We must focus on the apparatus of the state. The government and its tentacles, whether at the sub national level, or central level, this task is for them. The constitutional role of government is to protect its people. The moment it starts transferring that responsibility to the individual is an abdication of their responsibility. And it is a call to anarchy and I think nobody should support that.

What are the implications of this?

First, if we clear this problem today, people don’t seem to realise that the consequential issues of arming ourselves in this country will be even greater than what we are now facing be aide at the appropriate time when people no more have enemies they call enemies, they will turn the same arm against their neighbours and Nigeria will become something else. This is what we should be looking at. And I think what we should even be thinking is not to call for individuals to arm themselves. Let the regions organise security outfits like what the South-West has done in Amotekun or what the South-East is doing if they’re sincere about what they are doing. Those are the outfits that can be legalised in such a way that they can be equipped with instruments of force, with materials that can confront the enemies. But by the time you start talking about the individuals, fine, the individual will arm it but he doesn’t need to be armed to fight the enemy that is on a wider circle. He will use that to fight his next neighbour tomorrow. And I think that is the point we should be making, because Nigeria must survive. It’s not today that we should be looking at what this country is going to do and what it will be tomorrow. In essence, I believe that organised groups in terms of regional security outfits must be such that we should be advocating. And such are now transformed into the level of the local police force people are talking about, because, if you look at it, if it is not regional, already the state cannot even pay minimum wage. So many of the states are not even able to pay. How then can you expect these states now to start paying serious security outfits? If they organise their own security outfits at the state level and cannot pay those people, the resultant effect will even be more terrible than not having them at all. But if the regions can put themselves together, with the superintending role of the national police, I think that would produce a greater result for us than calling for each and every one of us to arm ourselves. It’s out of anger that that call was made. And any recommendation given under anger can be very terrible.

What is your take on President Muhammadu Buhahi’s insistence on the reestablishment of grazing routes in parts of the country?

That is politically and historically not correct. In the Southern part of the country; let me use South, not in the geopolitical nature, those below Rivers Niger and Benue, I think it is only either in Osun or Ogun that we have a gazetted grazing route. What we have in Benue and the rest are not gazetted. So, you cannot lay claim to it. And I think the Federal Government may not have done its research properly. But you have grazing routes in several states of the North. The question of grazing has been overtaken. It’s not relevant for now. Where are the routes? The land with which you think the cattle would have been moving those days have already been taken over by agriculture and human development. Urbanisation has almost taken over so many of the routes. So, where are the routes? And I think we shouldn’t be talking about grazing routes. What the Federal Government should push, and I think, it should develop the political will to do is that National Livestock Transformational Plan document. That’s a great document irrespective of the resistance from several quarters. If you sit down carefully to look at that document, it is prepared with a thoughtfulness that would also lead to better livestock development in the country and advance the course of our economy and even advance the course of our political peace in this country. There is much land in several northern states of this country. They can work in a league. Kano particularly has offered land. And I think they have more than enough land to accommodate even more than one third of the Herdsmen that are moving here. Secondly, why the Livestock Transformation Plan is good is that we seem to be looking at this rearing of cattle as if it is only done by the Fulani. If you go down South, the majority of the people own cattle but they use the Fulani to rear them for them. And so, the question of ranching becomes a fundamental issue that we should be pursuing in this country. And I think the recommendation made from several quarters may have been done out of rashness because we didn’t give enough space for people to plan. You introduce a legal instrument and you want it to become almost instantly in operation for something that has been happening over ages in this country like trans-humans. If we had allowed thoughtfulness, within one year, let’s set up a model ranch; maybe a state sets up a model ranch, bringing those who are interested to see that kind of thing, facilities that are available. If they are interested, let them establish them in their own states; if they are not, they can go and find other places because cattle rearing is a private business, and I think it should be allowed to be a private business. But if they go into it like model secondary schools are established, you can establish model cattle ranches to create that impression that the government is interested in a very organised form of ranching. And I think we should pursue that ranching more aggressively, but with some certain level of understanding. This is because a lot of people don’t simply understand what these things are. You know, we work under emotion and under emotion, passion rides everything and it can create problems. That’s what we have experienced in this country because of our problems. We should allow people to be educated properly on the necessity for ranching, on the necessity to abandon an age-long tradition that is no more productive, on the necessity to see the peace of this country is the fundamental issue for anybody pursuing any economic ventures. I think it is better for us if we remove this stereotype from our minds; this man looks like this; this community looks like this; this ethnic community is known to be aggressive, this ethnic community is the enemy. All of us must understand that coming to the table becomes a better issue in terms of communication. And it breaks down the wall of resistance and the wall of violence in a very wonderful manner. In essence, I think the issue of grazing routes is no longer valid within the Nigerian sector. Whatever any state of this country can do in terms of grazing reserves, which is the beginning of creating ranches, those are the things we should be pursuing. And I think the states of the north have enough land to pursue that matter. Those of us in the South here, especially in Benue can grow fodder and then export them to the states that have ranches and all of us will be better off for it.

The 2023 elections are just around the corner, yet we are having all of these issues like insecurity, so much hatred amongst ourselves and so on. Do you think we will be able to have a peaceful election come 2023?

I look into tomorrow, it will not continue. The age of noise has its own expiry date in this country. The age of agitation in their passive it has been taken has also its expiry date. One, everybody talks about some level of political intervention that quieten the minds of various segments of this country. The National Assembly began a process and it is in that process in terms of alteration. I think we should allow that alteration to take place. There are some people who were saying create a new Constitution and I think that is like a college boy approach to unionism which I think doesn’t give room for rational thinking. Stages of national evolution do come overnight. When you allow them to come overnight, you create a situation of destabilisation. And I think this country should not allow that. Individuals who have had the opportunity to be well exposed should be wise enough to have choices of their vocabulary that would help us in this country. This is because it’s a question of attitudinal change. What is there? If you’re talking of restructuring, is it restructuring to break down Nigeria? No. If we do agree that we can now give some certain political clout to the six geopolitical regions; if we create more, fine, even if there is a necessity to have more states to have these agitations dampened, why not. And I think we should allow the National Assembly to do that. Secondly, there is season for everything; political season also could heighten these issues. But people will start falling in line when the interest of what they are seeking for seems to be clearly coming out.

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