Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State, North-West Nigeria says a solution is in sight for the recurring crisis between farmers and herders in the country.
The Governor says part of the solution is to prevent herdsmen from moving from one place to another.
He made the comments in an interview with Journalists after he met behind closed doors with President Muhammadu Buhari.
Governor Bello Matawalle, who said he was in the State House to brief President Muhammadu Buhari on security matters affecting his State, was optimistic that the problem of clashes between farmers and herders can be resolved.
He, therefore, says all State governments must brace up and construct grazing grounds, popularly called ruga, to solve the problem.
“In my State, I am constructing ruga for them. It is like a settlement, where we can contain some of them because sincerely speaking if we allow them to be going round, migrating from one State to another, we cannot bring this issue to an end.
“So, the only thing the Governors will do; we are discussing that is to make sure we contain them in one place. Like the Fulani from Zamfara shouldn’t migrate to a neighbouring State.
“But how are we going to do that? This is something that needs a lot of resources because you have to create something that you will use to engage them; you have to provide some social amenities. Like the ruga that we are constructing, we have schools, hospitals, veterinary clinics, markets and even a mini stadium where they can meet for their cultural festivals.
“You can also create something like a dairy factory there but if we allow them to be migrating from place to place, that is where we will have problems but I believe that very soon the Nigerian Governors’ Forum will discuss that and know the action to take to contain them in one place because they are looking for pasture but once they have a grazing reserve and all facilities in one place, I don’t think they will move from place to place and that will be the end of all the crisis,” he said.
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Matawalle said he used dialogue to initiate a peace deal with his bandits in his State and he realised that not all of them are criminals.
The Governor used the occasion to call on his Niger State counterpart to embrace the same method to address the same problem currently affecting the State.
He said: “Banditry is something that I inherited in my State because it was going on there for almost eight years but due to my initiation of dialogue with them, Zamfara is now very calm. I have been calling my colleague the Governor of Niger State, to sit down with all stakeholders and find out the root cause of the crisis so that they can be able to dialogue and uninitiate reconciliation so as to also achieve what I have been able to achieve in my State.
“Most of the criminals that caused trouble in Zamfara, were not form my State. Two months back we had some repentant bandits who submitted their weapons to the State government. One was from Yobe State, two from Kaduna, two form Niger State; so, you see, it is a gang. In any case, we are in discussions with the Governor of Niger State and he is following the steps so as to initiate a peace deal and very soon we shall see an end to such a crisis.”
“Not all of them are criminals because if you investigate to know why they are into that, you will see that not all of them are criminals. Some of them told me they were cheated by the ‘yan sa kai’ those called vigilante groups, who went to their settlements to steal their property and livestock so, if such people attack them, they had to go for revenge so that is what exactly happened in some cases. and I had to ban the ‘yan sa kai’ completely in my State.”
He said he was going back satisfied because President Buhari promised to assist Zamfara State to address some of its challenges, to sustain the peace the State is now enjoying.
Zainab Sa’id
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