As Nigerian President Suspends Controversial Fulani Herdsmen Settlement Plan: Perhaps the Richest Debate on the RUGA Question

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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Jul 4, 2019, 2:35:56 AM7/4/19
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There has been a sustained & largely uninformed campaign against pastoralism. In response, the government decided to initiate the Ruga Settlement programme to settle them. Now there is a new campaign to frustrate stop it. So what do they want?

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  • Mohammed Mohammed Haruna
    Mohammed Mohammed Haruna Heads you lose, Tails you lose. It seems Prof.
  • Joe Attueyi
    Joe Attueyi Well if we are being honest with each other: The root problem is that the FG’s emotional trust bank account with most (?) many (?) non Fulani citizens of Nigeria is basically empty. 

    There is absolutely no way they can sell this RUGA plan south of the    Niger. 

    Either they start replenishing that trust account ( which is not a short term thing) or find a solution that does not exacerbate already existing tensions. 

    That is why I suggest the FG clearing sambisa forest and building the infrastructure that will turn it into animal husbandry economic park. 

    That way you kill two birds with the same stone. Convert that forest into useful purposes while eliminating the unnecessary ethnicity altercations that may lead to internecine warfare among our people
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  • Ibrahim Dan-Halilu
    Ibrahim Dan-Halilu Some people feel it's not the responsibility of the FG to do so. It's states that should resettle them since they are indigenous to some states. The FG approach seems to accommodate all pastoralists regardless of their nationality, which has the implication of harbouring citizens of other countries without proper documentation and no benefit to the FG since they will not pay taxes. Ideally, the Ruga Settlements should be backed by law enacted by the National Assembly rather than putting the cart before the horse. You cannot create a policy framework out of nothing.
    • Sesugh Akume
      Sesugh Akume Ibrahim Dan-Halilu, thank you. You speak my mind. Below are some concerns I personally have which include these you've stated here. I didn't want to make mine long so said only a little, but you've said it all. 
      No proper documentation, porous borders, free movement including of arms. How is this going to be mitigated?
    • Ntiyak Barwa
      Ntiyak Barwa Ibrahim Dan-Halilu u talk correctly,I think the writer didnt look at that
  • Sesugh Akume
    Sesugh Akume Let me speak for myself:

    In my ancestral home are IDPs from attacks by the herders. They can't go home because A, it's not safe up to now; B, there's no home to go to. They've been destroyed, homesteads, farmlands, etc. Others have been taken over by     grazing cattle. I'm of the opinion that these ones ought to be resettled, rehabilitated, and reintegrated first before talking about cattle settlements in their communities.
    I also know that there's ample land especially in the far northern Nigeria, I see vast tracks of land for kilometres with no human activity at all. I find it difficult to understand why the pilot projects has to start in my home. 
    I'm also of the opinion that cattle as any other business is private. If people want land for animal husbandry why is the FG allotting land and not they negotiating and getting it to run their businesses? Will this be done for me if I run into piggery too? Or I have to resort to violence then piggery can also be given special, exclusive attention?
    Recall the presidency statement that it's better for us to give up our land than to lose our lives. What precisely does this statement mean?
    • Ntiyak Barwa
      Ntiyak Barwa Sesugh Akume thank u my brother and well said
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
      Jibrin Ibrahim Its completely unacceptable that the State should allow any community be attacked and forced to flee so I feel your pain. The structural issues that precipitated the crisis need to be addressed to move in the direction of peace.
    • Sesugh Akume
      Sesugh Akume Yes sir. Thank you for understanding.
    • Ojeme Sunday
      Ojeme Sunday Mr Jibrin Ibrahim: You are feeling 'pain' without addressing the primary issue. Federal Government should be sincere in this matter. What effort have they made to disarm the murderous Fulani herdsmen? Has any of them been prosecuted for the widespread killings across the country? Please stop being hypocritical
    • Angela Abah Odah
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  • Jonathan Ishaku
    Jonathan Ishaku Prof. I thought a statement from the Fulani herdsmen through Miyetti Allah renouncing violence apologizing for the bloodshed, or generally showing remorse for the killings would have served as a precondition in smoothening the process. Unfortunately, Miyetti Allah still appears to exhibit an arrogant sense of entitlement for which the government hasn't even publicly deprecated. In the circumstances, it appears the government is creating havens for armed adversaries within victim communities. Prof. you can't sincerely be surprised by the murmurings!
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
      Jibrin Ibrahim There has indeed been a breakdown of relations and widespread violence which is bothways so yes let both sides apologise but above all stop the killings. Also be careful about statements attributed to specific groups, many are fake.
    • Jonathan Ishaku
      Jonathan Ishaku Jibrin Ibrahim I have only cited the Miyetti Allah and I have several documentary sources for my statement. Your statement that the violence is "bothways" unfortunately has no academic backing; offensive violence begets defensive violence, to casually inpute the killings to people defending their homesteads undergirds the fallacious narrative that we are dealing with farmers-herders clashes. The truth you know as an academic is that the entire West African region come under threat of Fulani herdsmen violence. The killings in Mali, Burkina Faso and southern Niger are similar to those in Nigeria. These armed non-state (?) actors are increasingly leveraging with international terrorists networks in undermining the entire security of the sub-region. I put it to you that you already know this. The government has no alternative, indeed, than to seek solutions to the emerging problem but it must do so with due respect and appreciation of the rights of other groups in the country. It's a violation of international law and norms to provide safe havens for armed belligerent groups. If the Ruga settlement must succeed the Federal government must prosecute and jail the sponsors of the violence while those to be settled should sign some undertaking denouncing violence. This is not too much to ask.
    • Olugbenga Akanmu
      Olugbenga Akanmu Jonathan Ishaku you have hit the major points, and why should anyone accommodate enemies, and the govt is pushing its agenda without proper regard for feeling of other Nigerians. This Fulani herdsmen, are all of them Nigerians. Do we allow people from outside the country a seat in the nation.
    • Ninret Dakwam
      Ninret Dakwam I am surprise that prof is saying this. After all, almost all Newspaper and magazine headlines from 199 to date have pointedly say "Fulani armed men, Fulani herdsmen attack, Fulani militia etc. But you hardly see Sedentary farmers attack on Fulani herdsmen. From Jos North, Southern Kaduna, Nasarawa, Benue, Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Bokkos, in Plateau state, Numan, Demsa in Adamawa and Taraba states, the narrative is the same. Perhaps prof want the victims to plead for leniency from their attackers? I believe that both the government and their co- travellers have an agenda of taking over and occupying ancestral lands in these areas. This is another phase of colonialism, but this time around, primitive colonialism.
    Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
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  • Eric C. Ona
    Eric C. Ona Livestock business is a lucrative business. The people in the business should buy lands and have ranches, just like farmers buy land to farm. Its not the government's role to impose something that would benefit a particular tribe at the expense of other tribes.
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
      Jibrin Ibrahim Its a voluntary programme for those who want it. Anchor Borrowers programme provides support to farmers so why should government not provide support to pastoralists who are also farmers.
    • Eric C. Ona
      Eric C. Ona Jibrin Ibrahim sir, this one is a sensitive matter because it has to do with a particular tribe that the whole country has been suspecting of something they think is unpleasant. If its a business that is run mostly by everybody it couldn't have generated this concern this issue is generating now.
    • Sola Adeyanju
      Sola Adeyanju I think living in self denial and not accepting the reality on ground, with its socioeconomic and political influences is like doing a disservice to the society. There cannot be injustice and you expect people to keep quiet. The issue of it being voluntary cannot be farther from the truth except we are being hypocritical about it. There have been cases of armtwisting and cajoling. The right approach to this is to first right the wrongs. Some people have lost their ancestral land and homes taking over by the marauders, sometimes in connivance with law enforcement agents. People are IDPs in their state and country due to no fault of theirs, we are not talking of how to resettle them but we are quick to talk about voluntarily releasing land to the same people accused of sending people out of their land. I guess the kind of activism we should do is such that will not portray one group as being superior to the other. For anyone to pretend that he does not know the importance Africans attach to land is to be courting trouble. If the anchor borrower programme is for farmers then we need to know how many farmers have travelled the whole country sending people out of their lands, destroying their homes and forcefully taking over their lands in the name of promoting their businesses.
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  • Chigozie Paul Amadi
    Chigozie Paul Amadi You have enough land in the North. Use it instead of provoking poor farmers, raping and killing indigenous people.
    • Ibim Semenitari
      Ibim Semenitari Chigozie Paul Amadi I hope those of us from the south would remain in our own place and not travel to the North?
    • Ntiyak Barwa
      Ntiyak Barwa Ibim Semenitari the northerners are all over too and I am from the north and I stay in the south so pls cut the crab. We are not talking about that now,we are talking about safety of people,people that herdsmen have destroyed their farms and houses have they been compensated but they are compensating the doers kai ubangiji
    • Edward Lenshie
      Edward Lenshie Ibim Semenitari, I think it is ignorance to make such statement. How many of the Southerners in the north are settled by the federal government in places where they are? They purchased their lands and decide to settle, but they know that it is not their home. The case of the Fulani who claim that they own Nigeria, any other people are strangers, they will take over their lands, make claim to belong there with time, their children will also grow to compete with the children of the real owners of the land and the opportunities which are readily not available will be closed in and violence will set in. People must understand the logic surrounding the violence in Northern Kivu in the Republic of Congo. 

      The Northern Nigeria has vast land and without people, because they are scattered population. Why is the government interested in settling a population without ancestral narratives in those lands. In Taraba State, the Tiv and Jukum conflict leverage from the claim that the Tiv are a settled population in Wukari, Southern Senatorial District of the state. The conflict has become generational, how more of bringing in a population of nomads with history of ancestral in similar areas, what will happen? 

      This is the real time bomb, Nigeria must be careful. This is modern day jihadism. It has nothing to do with religion, it is ethnic domination, an effort to establish a Master race identity in Nigeria for all Fulani in Africa, and subsequently, will shift focus to religious conquest. 

      Always remember seeing Fulani acting in this manner, it is the effort at implementing a long time agenda, which former President Olusegun Obasanjo envisage to be the Fulanization and Islamization of Nigeria and West Africa. This must not be taken for granted. It is a thing that must be opposed.

      In Taraba State, we already have sedentary Fulani population. Using Federal government money for any form of settlement is call for anarchy and resentment. Its effect will be disastrous. The marauding Fulani herdsmen have refused to apologise to the farmers for the affronts on their lives and properties in State where the government is interested to start RUGA settlement, this will further cause more violence. 

      Nowadays, people are not afraid of violent death, so long it is going to be in protection of their own land. A stitch in time saves nine.
    • Joel Nwokeoma
      Joel Nwokeoma Ibim, nwannem, this is not needful a question to pose, with due respect.
    • Ibim Semenitari
      Ibim Semenitari Joel Nwokeoma the point for me is not about RUGA. It is about the comments regarding people staying in their own place. Haba Joel, we are all Nigerians. Sometimes we forget that we inter marry and are all nomadic. You ny brother live and do business in Lagos. You have for most of your life. All of my growing up and adult years were also in Lagos, should I really be any less a Lagosian than Remi or Bankole or should Chinedu who was born and bred in PH be any less a Rivers man than Tonye or Boma? Should Shehu who grew up and went to school in Orlu and probably speaks better Igbo that Chinelo born and raised in Ibadan be any less an Ibo man? Think about it my brother and see my perspective. This hate we are spewing will consume us all. Let us engage without the hate. That too is possible you know? Let us remove those four covered glasses we all are wearing biko nnam.
    • Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
      Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju Ibim Semenitari you are not addressing the terrorism that right wing Fulani have unleashed on Nigeria using Fulani nomadism as a platform.

      Do you know of any other such ethnic initiative, even from your native Niger Delta?

      This nation wide terrorism initiative is the problem, not the rights of Nigerians.

      Or do you deny the existence of this ethnic centred terrorism that has been most active in the Middle Belt and also in other parts of Nigeria?
    • Ibim Semenitari
      Ibim Semenitari Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju sorry sir since I am not a right wing fulani but a Nigerian it may be difficult for me to have the right answers that may seem good enough
    • Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
      Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju Ibim Semenitari the qs is not not whether or not you are a right wing Fulani.

      The qs is- do you deny the existence of terrorism across Nigeria led by right wing Fulani?

      That terrorist initiative is the reason people rightly see the RUGA plan as a way of leveraging on the fear and pain caused by this terrorism, Nigeria's Fulani President using Nigerian govt policy in aiding his brethren.

      If you think this terrorism does not exist, let me know so I can post here my compilation of public owning up and justifying of massacres by various right wing Fulani groups since Buhari came to power in 2015, figures who remain unquestioned and unpunished by the Buhari govt which is centred on rewarding the terrorists with the land of other Nigerians. .
    • Jide Balogun
      Jide Balogun This may be hard to swallow, but it does appear that we are Nigerians only when we get what we want. The instant things don't go our way, we head back to our ethnic enclaves. If and when we are truly committed to Nigeria, we will açcept one another as compatriots rather than aliens. Someone wrote on this wall that not all Fulanis are Nigerians. To me, that is a pretext to profile Fulanis and justify demonizing them. 
      I haven't yet commented on the RUGA policy. I thought we should clear the ethno-cultural underbrush before analysing the costs and benefits of the policy.
    • Chigozie Paul Amadi
      Chigozie Paul Amadi Jide, you must read the news when it best serves you. Fulanis are saying everywhere that their are non Nigeria Fulanis coming into the country. So Obasanjo and Danjuma claims do not convince you? Furthermore, Buhari paying 100 b naira to Miyetti Allah to help end insecurity is a clear acknowledgement that they are responsible for the mayhem. Stretch your mind son.
    Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
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  • Uka Ugwa
    Uka Ugwa It's crystal clear to me, now. Thiese cattle ranch/colony and Ruga nonsense are like the government of the day, in its sworn craze, proposing to build model markets (in the capacity of Alaba, Otu Nkwo, Ariria, Ladipo, Tejuosho and the many more) throughout Nigerian regions, beyond, through Niamey and up to Cassablanca, to accommodate and sustain the llivelihood of migrant Igbo merchants and their trades. With state fund? This is an unattainable conquest, especially in my terrain, the Caliphate must be told. Tame your herds and the herdsman to your stead, NOW!
  • Jide Ojo
    Jide Ojo So you think it is proper to use taxpayers money to build for people who probably have never paid any tax to the system? They are business men like everyone else. Tje government can support them by making a loan scheme available but to use state's resources for the benefit of few is notjing but corruption. Will ruga users pay rent to the government?
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
      Jibrin Ibrahim How many farmers pay tax in this country.
    • Jide Ojo
      Jide Ojo Jibrin Ibrahim and how many of them do the government build farm settlement for? And if the government must use the tax paid by only a segment of the society, it must be for his kinsmen? I can see your version of democracy clearly. No wonder Nigeria is still underdeveloped. This tupe of thinking is not in sync with real development.
    • Daniel Ishaya
      Daniel Ishaya Jibrin Ibrahim ALL. At least, they pay VALUE ADDED TAX on a lot of goods and services they consume. Good morning.
    • Aleeyu Shoaib Soleh
      Aleeyu Shoaib Soleh Jide Ojo billions allocated to farmers from FG, go make your findings
    • Jide Ojo
      Jide Ojo Aleeyu Shoaib Soleh you mean farmers in the north?
    Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
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  • Abubakar Atiku Nuhu-Koko
    Abubakar Atiku Nuhu-Koko Miyetti Allah is an unknown phenomenon to the cattle pastoralists. Miyetti Allah is just like any one of those ubiquitous so-called elitist urban-based socio-cultural groups that go around with politicians in search of greener pastures from government treasuries period.
    • Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
      Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju a group led by Nigeria's most elite Fulani, most prominent among whom are the Sultan of Sokoto and the Emir of Kano is not what you described.

      They are a powerful pressure group.
  • Nk Lee
    Nk Lee Nigerians underrated Buhari, fighting his way back for second tenure is to unleash the Islamic fury in him to subdue the entire Nigeria to Islamic religion.
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    • Ntiyak Barwa
      Ntiyak Barwa Nk Lee hmmmmmmm
    • Usman Ahmad Kumo
      Usman Ahmad Kumo And you think the Pastors in his Government support him for that?
    • Charlie Chirah Abboh
      Charlie Chirah Abboh Usman Ahmad Kumo the pastors/Imams in his govrrnment, just as anybody else in this PMB govrrnment is after MONEY for his or her pocket, they dont give a danm about the people.
    • Nk Lee
      Nk Lee Usman Ahmad Kumo The pastors might have supported him ignorantly, without knowing his ulterior motives. All of you in the mosque know it, you are only pretending. Boko Haram has not yielded the results buhari envisaged, he is pretending to bring a seemingly fed project called RUGA. But except there is no God in heaven before he will succeed.
    • Usman Ahmad Kumo
      Usman Ahmad Kumo Nk Lee, how do you come to know their ulterior motives while the Pastors are ignorant of them ? Do youv know God?
    • Nk Lee
      Nk Lee Usman Ahmad Kumo You that know God, why do you support such evil when you know the after effects against your fellow human? You brought the issue of pastors serving in buharis govt, now, u jump to whether I know God.
    • Nk Lee
      Nk Lee You think everybody is so stupid and clueless as such can be so easily deceived?
    • Usman Ahmad Kumo
      Usman Ahmad Kumo Is it because iam a Muslim from that led to your conclusion that I support the RUGA program?
    • Nk Lee
      Nk Lee Capital YES, and your ambition to islamize Nigeria is incomparable. But Unman, except there is no God before u, and that your president will succeed,.
    • Nk Lee
      Nk Lee Is there no enough land in the north for you people to settle your arms loving fulanis/herdsmen?
    • Usman Ahmad Kumo
      Usman Ahmad Kumo Nk Lee, do you mean that all Northerners and Fulanis are in support of the Program?
    Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
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  • Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
    Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju very interesting
  • Danjuma Abdullahi
    Danjuma Abdullahi They don't want the entity called Nigeria! I don't know in what language the constituent ethnic groups of Southern Nigeria will put this message for Northerners to comprehend.
  • Moses Awogbade
    Moses Awogbade Jibo that has been my recommendation since early 80s. I am happy the government is now seriously looking at it. As at now Riga concept allows the govt and local populace and security outfits to monitor movements of cattle and particularly allow pastoralists children to acquire education. It is also a good alternative to reduce substantially incidents of conflict. The next step is to seriously look at the uncontrolled access of pastoralists from neighbouring countries into Nigeria space. Have a beautiful day.
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
      Jibrin Ibrahim Indeed, thanks so much for all the great work you have done on this matter over the decades
    • Sola Adeyanju
      Sola Adeyanju Moses Awogbade so sir, what happens to those who have been denied of their ancestral lands by the occupiers? What happens to those who have lost their breadwinner attacked unjustly by the marauders? What happens to those living as IDPs in their country? I guess you are not bothered by injustice but you are quick to pacify the aggressors. One would have thought that there would be a balanced solution, Alas, those we look forward to as elders do not see anything wrong in alienating some people to pacify the others. So, it is sociologically accepted that people should cause chaos to get what they want in a system and get rewarded by that system without recourse to justice because the leaders lack pragmatism in solving the problem. Remember that the seed you sow today will germinate and have impact on your children unborn. In places where the locals are living with the pastoralists, it is the case of superior and subordinate and this is what you want to promote? He who is affected knows where it pains. If this is the kind of advise being fed to people in government over the years, does anyone need to wonder why we are where we are? Now I agree with Professor Wole Soyinja that termed his generation as a 'wasted generation'
    • Moses Awogbade
      Moses Awogbade Sola Adeyanju Sola thanks. I think we are putting heads together to find an acceptable solution. I know we cannot continue to kill and maim each other. As a student of those are using Nigeria ungoverned state, I believe very strongly that we should try again the Riga enclave system. I hope you understand. I am not taken side. Thanks.
    • Nk Lee
      Nk Lee Moses Awogbade Northern region is vast enough for them to settle the herdsmen and their businesses and families, spreading them all over Nigeria is not in the interest of the local communities, they do not have souls in them. These people are the worst version of Boko Haram, that was brought by the same Buhari.
    Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
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  • Shehu Umar
    Shehu Umar WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE GOOSE IS ALSO GOOD FOR THE GANDER

    There is no better opportunity for the Kano State Government to close ALL brothels and ALL beer parlours in 'Sabon Gari', 'Badawa', etc than now in line with our religion and culture as they contr    ibute nothing but social and moral decadence to our society.

    The Governor may wish to contact our ancestors as to whether to revoke the Certificate of Occupancy of those properties which I am very sure they will grant him permission to do so.

    More so, 100% of those people are not indigenes of the State but being accommodated by us in line with our religious and cultural heritage of non discrimination among human beings in line with their beliefs or culture.
  • Lateef Abdulsalam
  • Nankin Bagudu
    Nankin Bagudu If that is the case how come that was amongst the six that wanted it is protesting?
  • Tijjani Shehu
    Tijjani Shehu We always seem to put the wrong foot forward. . . .there ought to have been a massive public enlightenment and reorientation before embarking on a program of this magnitude in restive communities. 
    Pity.
  • Kabir Yusuf
    Kabir Yusuf I must say that the grazing reserves are not a completely bad idea. Decades of doing the wrong by successive governments have ensured that the Fulani Herdsmen remained largely uneducated living and tendering their herds the ancestral way. Having them live in reserves - hope they agree to stay in them - should give us the opportunity to assist them handle their wealth in line with modern practices.
  • Lamy Lawal
    Lamy Lawal That's the question. A few mischievous elites are the ones fanning this negativity. Yet we cry that Democracy is under threat.
  • Allison Young
    Allison Young NoToRUGA in the South East
  • Comfort Dauda Iliya
    Comfort Dauda Iliya The vast expanse of land at Sambisa should be reclaimed and put to good use. A ranch (es) there will be adequate enough for all the cattles criss crossing Nigeria at the detriment of citizens safety n other concerns. 
    Sambisa can be upgraded with worl    d class facilities.

    Meat factory
    Milk factory
    Cheese n butter factory
    Tannery etc
    can emerge there.

    Immense opportunities for collaboration BTW Governments, agencies & PS, employment, export etc ......

    #IfTheWillIsThere!!!!!
  • Uche Wisdom Durueke
    Uche Wisdom Durueke Dr. Jibo, land is not expanding? It is constant, at least in many places, like the South East States. May be some States in the country can reclaim land, at great cost, from the sea, if the fund for that will ever be made available after RUGA. 
    Next, t    he farmers need land. There is also need for land for other development purposes. 
    These RUGA lands cannot be recovered for eternity, if the owners want to. The issue, realistically, is not as simple as being presented. 
    History has warned many of these communities. 
    The RUGA issue will be a time bomb in future. We must own up to this: being real on the issue. 
    Herding and farming are both private ventures. Why is the Federal Government so keen on pursuing it, at all cost? It is a threat to peace for now. 
    May be to reassure the opponents of RUGA, the Federal Government would have pursued a policy of giving such land in the places the herders are coming from - in size and quality of provision of facilities needed - to the businesses heavily engaged in by people from the opponent States to reassure them.
    If these herders are not Nigerians, why give them Nigerian soil for herding in the manner the Federal Government is going about it?
  • Immiga Naija
    Immiga Naija What they is let the cattle owners purchase land or ranch for grazing because it is a private business not government business. Just as traders and artisans bought or rent their shops for private business. That's all they want ok
  • Ozone Agbakuru
    Ozone Agbakuru Imagine that an Igbo is the sitting president of Nigeria.

    And that president has decreed that lands be taken from natives from all the thirty-six states of the federation and given to Igbo business owners.

    To keep and to live on forever!

    If this happened, by now as we speak hole crevices will be safe for anyone suspected to be Igbo to hide in the whole federation.

    From Kano to Lagos, from Sokoto to Buguma all the Igbo will be hunted down and killed.

    Even the BBC would have joined in.

    But that has happened now just that that president is not Igbo.

    Nigerians, see your life?
  • Emmanuel Korieocha
    Emmanuel Korieocha Is this cattle rearing not a private enterprise? Why can't the owners of the cattle build ranches for their cattle? Whose land are they going to use as Ruga village? Why is the federal government so much involve in using the resources that belong to all Nigerians to empower his Fulani ethnic tribe fellas? We have been living peaceful in this country with the Fulani people without any qualms until one of their own become president, why? The way President Buhari is going about this issue, he may not be able to contain its outcome. Prof. just face facts and say the truth, stop supporting something that is not justifiable both morally and legally. The federal government has no land according to our constitution, all the lands belongs to the state government and the President want to use force to create Ruga Villages for the Fulani people throughout the 36 states. The outcome is not what I don't know, because the outcome is glaringly clear.
    • Muuta Ibrahim
      Muuta Ibrahim Emmanuel Korieocha Another Perspective on RUGA !

      Prof. Biodun Adewuya wrote:

      Government bailed out banks even though banking is personal business but it was done for security reasons 

      Government bailed out the states, even though there is separation of power, but failed states are security risks to the country 

      Government bailed out the textile industry, government bailed out the airlines. In the US government bailed out the automobile industries .

      In Nigeria government subsidize fertilisers, government support and give loans to mechanised farmers...

      Farmer-herders clash is a security problem. 

      You either spend the money in buying arms or recruiting more police and armed forces....or you can bail out and help the herders establish grazing settlement and ranches 

      When there are ranches, then open grazing becomes unlawful. 

      True herders can be monitored and separated from criminals. Just like provision of public toilets make open defecation unlawful. 

      It's ok to be afraid
      It's ok to be sentimental 
      It's ok to be political 
      Its ok to be tribal
      Its ok to be territorial 
      It's even ok to hate if you must 

      But sometime it's ok to see the other side of your own argument.

      Saying NO, NO and NO to every effort questions whether you really want the problem solved or you are just interested in the confusion and tribal blaming.
  • Paul Agbo
    Paul Agbo Prof, what do you propose? That FG should trample upon the constitution to lease herders? That some people should be "settled" to the detriment of others? That the Fulanis who are supposed to be Nigerians have suddenly forgotten their lands? That others be forced to accommodate them to their own detrimement? That FG is certainly oblivious to Solutions and laws of the land? That this Government thrives on the blood of the innocents? What don't you understands? Please, educate us sir. That cattle rearing is no longer a private business affairs? Hmmmm!
  • Mypeeple Naija
    Mypeeple Naija What do "they" want?
    Prof as an academic you know the implication of "othering" spelling is correct pls.
    The fact that there is othering shows that there is already a problem...them and us.
    This separation is the reason for all the problem. 
    Let me turn the question around and ask, who are the "we", and what do "they" want.
    All that the "they" want is an honest answer to the question to be tabled. Once that is provided, I don't see any problem again.
  • Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim
    Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim It all began with hatred for the Fulani ethnicity. The foundation stones for this hatred were laid in the politics of the early 50s and sustained throughout the decades that followed. Anything associated with the Fulani must be hated and frustrated. 

    There’s nothing new about government earmarking land for the purpose of agriculture. All the land on which the river basins are located was obtained from state governments and earmarked for irrigated agriculture but because Ruga is associated with the Fulani and pastoralism, the age old hatred had resurfaced and blinded otherwise reasonable people.
    • Nk Lee
      Nk Lee If the herdsmen ever spared their opponents sir, n their families both young n old, the story would have been different. This hatred according to you goes to confirm the saying that 'the evil that men do live with them' not after them in this case.
  • Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim
    Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim Ignorance has become an ornament in Nigeria. There is a hardly a city in Northern Nigeria without Sabon Gari quarters. Sabon Gari in the North are areas allocated to Southerners so they can settle and live peacefully according to their unique lifestyle. It is unfortunate and shameful that some Nigerians are not welcome in other parts of their own country.
  • Mypeeple Naija
    Mypeeple Naija Is the federal government going to be directly involved in the organisation and administration of the ranches? Thats the proper name by the way. Is there anything stopping states from putting their citizens in these settlements... afterall it is not only fulani that rear cattle. The money belongs to all Nigerians, (if it doesn't who does it belong to) States can take the money and encourage their local cattle farmers to settle in the ranches. If the conditions for disbursing the monies does not allow that, then clearly there is an agenda.
    Please can anyone privy to the agreement post it so we can evaluate it independently without unnecessary sentiment? Thanks.
  • Akanu Ujah Agwu
    Akanu Ujah Agwu Thank God for this events of today, one need to look no further to appreciate the damages Buhari has done. Men of substance leaning towards their ethnic divide because the man at the helm made it so with his policies. There was a country.
  • Kabura Zakama
    Kabura Zakama Pastoralism is at a cross road in all parts of the world. We need a wide, far-reaching dialogue to manage the problem!
  • Obed Tarkie Kubmuto
    Obed Tarkie Kubmuto I think the farmers have the right to reject any attempt by the government to take over their lands. At the start of the crisis, the govt said they are foreign invaders, later farmers were implored to learn to coexist and now they want to build Ruga's across the 36 States. I think your question should be directed to the government. What do the government really want.
  • Kabura Zakama
    Kabura Zakama The Grazing Reserve approach to pastoralist development started in Nigeria around 1964!I cannot give the the numbers now, but the Grazing Reserves Law of 1964/5 was passed in the North, complete with stock route. Successive government paid lip service to it and the idea died down. PTF tried to revive it through the Food Supply Programme (yours truly was part of that programme) and it was the last best effort to address the herder-farmer problem but Obasanjo, rightly or wrongly, cancelled the PTF. 
    It should be noted that, at least, in the Northern states, grazing reserves and stock routes are established. At that time, farmers knew what was cattle route and what was farmland. As time went on and as population exploded, grazing areas became scare and farmers also encroached into stock routes until most of them are now blocked. So the problem is not that of herders only; farmers too have farmed most of the stock routes.
    A grazing reserves approach is still very good but it takes dialogue between farming and herding communities. The original plan is that the grazing reserves will be linked by cattle routes which will have resting points along the routes, complete with watering points, markets, etc. Very beneficial to all. 
    Now emotions are high on all sides. People are posing as herders to perpetrate evil because we have, typical of Nigerian rulers, left things to get very bad before acting. The problem is no longer simply that of a reserves and routes thing. It's about going back to serious community dialogues just as we did in 1998-1999 under the PTF's Food Supply Programme. It's only negotiated settlement now that will work. GOVERNMENT CANNOT SIT IN OFFICES AND DECIDE WHAT SHOULD BE DONE!! 
    DIALOGUE!!! DIALOGUE!!! DIALOGUE!!!!
    • Obed Tarkie Kubmuto
      Obed Tarkie Kubmuto Sir, you submission is quite incissive but the model of 1964 cannot be applied in 2019. The contemporary practice is ranching and I think the government should work around setting it across states that are willing to provide the land. Not just taking land from farmers who the government never cared about their plight.
  • Muuta Ibrahim
    Muuta Ibrahim Another Perspective on RUGA !

    Prof. Biodun Adewuya wrote:

    Government bailed out banks even though banking is personal business but it was done for security reasons 

    Government bailed out the states, even though there is separation of power, but failed states are security risks to the country 

    Government bailed out the textile industry, government bailed out the airlines. In the US government bailed out the automobile industries .

    In Nigeria government subsidize fertilisers, government support and give loans to mechanised farmers...

    Farmer-herders clash is a security problem. 

    You either spend the money in buying arms or recruiting more police and armed forces....or you can bail out and help the herders establish grazing settlement and ranches 

    When there are ranches, then open grazing becomes unlawful. 

    True herders can be monitored and separated from criminals. Just like provision of public toilets make open defecation unlawful. 

    It's ok to be afraid
    It's ok to be sentimental 
    It's ok to be political 
    Its ok to be tribal
    Its ok to be territorial 
    It's even ok to hate if you must 

    But sometime it's ok to see the other side of your own argument. 

    Saying NO, NO and NO to every effort questions whether you really want the problem solved or you are just interested in the confusion and tribal blaming.
  • Ignatius Anayo Agu
    Ignatius Anayo Agu Ranching. Modern ranching. Lets follow modern trend
  • Nk Lee
    Nk Lee Let the RUGA project end in the north, you people are very trickish, there's a serious hidden agenda behind the RUGA but God will confuse all of you.
  • Adeola Soetan
    Adeola Soetan RUGA - PHOBIA is Justified. 
    You cannot build any sustainable development, no matter the good intention, on a faulty sociology and selective blindness to the past and recent history of the people, more so, in a country engrossed in ethnic suspicion and     conflict worsened by its perceived clannish leadership.

    Those states that want ranches for sociological and historical reasons should have them while those states that want to ruga should ruga with corresponding benefits to all financed from the collective national purse.
    That is the beauty of federalism even in its distorted form.
  • Moses Awogbade
    Moses Awogbade Kabura you are right except that the problem was compounded by non adherence to the dictates of the first livestock development which recommended the establishment of g/ 23rd, and which I carried our several studies. Also the ptf also complicated the o…See more
  • Aisha Ismail
    Aisha Ismail Jibo, some people are just hell bent on making Nigeria a grave yard. The government should not only ignore them but do absolutely the right thing, including taking a firm stand on sabotage and treachery. Fulani resettlement scheme has long been overdue. We should by now know the actual perpetrators of the Fulani/Farmers conflict in Nigeria.
  • Constance Meju
    Constance Meju What is a campaign? Cattle business is personal like fish farming, with technological advancement ponds are even being set up in dry places with owners buying feeds to grow them. Same way Herdsmen need to up grade and buy feed from others not take overtheir ancestoral land through government intimidation. End product of this trade is bought mainly by this South and money goes to individual pockets. Why kill some to help a few? Who has addressed the business needs of the Ibos, the pollution's and frustrations of the Niger Delta producing money for this evil plot? We speak of progress and unity but conveniently ignore justice and fairplay.
  • Adebola Ade
    Adebola Ade The want ANARCHY
  • Musty Idiaro
    Musty Idiaro Another Perspective on RUGA !

    Prof. Biodun Adewuya wrote:

    Government bailed out banks even though banking is personal business but it was done for security reasons 

    Government bailed out the states, even though there is separation of power, but failed states are security risks to the country 

    Government bailed out the textile industry, government bailed out the airlines. In the US government bailed out the automobile industries .

    In Nigeria government subsidize fertilisers, government support and give loans to mechanised farmers...

    Farmer-herders clash is a security problem. 

    You either spend the money in buying arms or recruiting more police and armed forces....or you can bail out and help the herders establish grazing settlement and ranches 

    When there are ranches, then open grazing becomes unlawful. 

    True herders can be monitored and separated from criminals. Just like provision of public toilets make open defecation unlawful. 

    It's ok to be afraid
    It's ok to be sentimental 
    It's ok to be political 
    Its ok to be tribal
    Its ok to be territorial 
    It's even ok to hate if you must 

    But sometime it's ok to see the other side of your own argument. 

    Saying NO, NO and NO to every effort questions whether you really want the problem solved or you are just interested in the confusion and tribal blaming.
  • Omoniyi Ibietan
    Omoniyi Ibietan Prof. There's no objective ground for the implementation of pastoralism to cover the whole of the country at time the country is led by a president who's perceived by majority of people from the South as very provincial. Hard as we may try, we cannot convince anybody that the motive is informed by ecological problems faced by pastoralists. The FG should stop the implementation of policies that promote the culture or superiority of one ethnic group over another. We have lived together in this country as citizens of one nation before the ascendancy of this government. This government should stop this divisiveness that is turning the rest of the country against the Fulanis. I mean, how do you convince the people of Southern Nigeria and the Northern minority groups that the so-called RUGA or settlement or colony or whatever the policy is called will be inhabited by Fulanis who are citizens of Nigeria in the face of the uncontrolled influx of pastoralists from neighbouring countries into Nigeria? The FG has not allayed the fears of the citizens of Southern Nigeria and Northern minority groups that it is really committed to building a united federation based on justice and fairness. So, it will be difficult for him to be trusted with the implementation of such policy. As a scholar, you may wish to educate me as your fan and fellow northerner where this kind of policy has been implemented. I mean, cattle rearing or breeding has migrated from realm the FG is promoting at the moment. Let's benchmark the rest of the world where cattle business is practised. Importantly, if our Constitution didn't make an emperor of the President of the Republic can a president of a proper federation contemplate this travesty? Can Trump go to California to create a settlement for a section of Americans? Prof. you are a political scientist, I need you to educate us why we have such a convoluted political system. Why is the political class and the elites creating such a monstrous climate inimical to peaceful coexistence of the country's diverse elements?
  • Aminu Imam
    Aminu Imam RUGA THIS, RUGA THAT

    I think this comment by my Comrade Johnson Andrew should settle all the chaka chaka chaka.

    I couldn't have said it better. Everyone should come and go home. Fight don finish.
    ...

    THE RUGA DEBATE:

    Sokoto, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Kogi, Taraba, Katsina, Plateau, Kebbi, Zamfara and Niger are the 11 states that have volunteered to donate land for implementation of Ruga.

    Is your state listed? 
    If not, do yourself a huge favour - shut up. 

    If your argument is that cattle farming is individual trade, then you still have no argument. 
    You are simply a hating bigot. 

    Your anger is Buhari and Fulani. 
    In this country, the Igbos have a monopoly of motor spare part trade. 
    We have seen government invest much in building spare parts market all over the nation. Up-to setting up free export zones. 

    RUGA is of the same thought. Consider it as a market. If you argue that anyone can do spare part business, who then stopped you from rearing cattle?

    I don't want to go into historology or histrionics. Borrow sense and stop heating up the polity.

    #EndOfDiscussion
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