By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
The federal government has stepped into the incessant clashes between the herdsmen and farmers in some parts of the country, warning to deal with perpetrators. Minister of Interior, Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd), and Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Bassey Okon Akpanyung, gave the warning at a one-day stakeholders’ meeting on Pastoralists-Sedentary Farmers’ Conflict in Nigeria.
While insisting that there was the need to resolve the persistent crisis between farmers and herders, the Minister said apart from the insurgents, there were other opportunistic criminal angles to the conflict.
He said: “The rise of the social media and the internet has given scope to non-traditional media outlets which has seen interest groups frame stories surrounding the conflict in ways that have tend to undermine the corporate existence of Nigeria.”
He said clashes between herdsmen and farmers have grave implications for Nigeria’s internal security architecture, adding that the parley was to arrive at a common understanding of the problems underlying the conflict and to harness institutional memory of past policy interventions from the various stakeholders.
“There have been a number of committees and think-thank type investigations into the conflict in the past and it is the intention of the Ministry of Interior to gather these together and note which have been implemented, highlighting the effects and failures of each in order to arrive at narrative and doctrinal certainties.”
The Minister assured that a subsequent and expanded meeting would be held soon to develop a sustainable and enduring solution to the conflict but warned that such engagement must be devoid of ethnic, religious or partisan agenda which often leads to rancour and sentimental difficulties.
Speaking earlier, the Permanent Secretary regretted that such conflicts had led to the untimely deaths of not just the actors, but many innocent Nigerians.
“We have as a nation already lost many lives and we must find a solution to this conflict. It is of a needless nature and we think enough is enough,” he said.
The parley drew participants from various security agencies, National Boundary Commission, National Human Rights Commission, relevant ministries and others.
