Spread the love
It will be unjust if different issues continue to rise and addressed on a daily basis and virtually everybody remain quiet when some of our brothers and sisters in some parts of the country find it hard to sleep with their two eyes closed. Rest in peace to the heroes that lost their lives in this ugly incident and I pray God grant their families the fortitude to bear the great loss, (Amen).
This piece is motivated by an African proverb that says, “Do not call anybody a thief if he/she has not stolen from you”, so we will strike a balance and look at issues as it affect both the herders, settlers/farmers of the communities respectively.
Giving justifications that the people perpetuating this act are the Fulani herdsmen and when they strike, the media gets all the information and sometimes it’s been painted and so many other information are added just to blackmail them but in some states when the settlers retaliate by killing other Fulani men and their cows the media don’t get any information about their death, the Fulanis don’t have access to the media. The bias of the media is sickening and only making the matter worse.
The Fulani herdsmen do not settle in any community without having an agreement with the community leaders on the amount they will be paying for settling in the community.
We should be just enough to ask ourselves these questions;
1. Were the Fulani herdsmen settling with us before?
2. Are they not the same people that exchange cow milk (nunu) for farm products like yams and maizes in different communities?
3. Do they just find joy in killing and destroying properties?
If we answer these questions with all sincerity, we will definitely get lasting solutions to the continuous conflict between the herdsmen and the settlers/farmers in the country.
These days the Fulani herdsmen are being killed along with their Cows in some parts of Nigeria and no doubt, the Fulanis kill too but I’m bothered about the fact that in the past the Fulanis cohabitate with us in different parts of the country without any qualms.
On the cattle colony as proposed by the Federal Government as a solution to the herdsmen -farmers conflict in Nigeria, most persons don’t understand what a cattle colony is but they insist it’s a bad idea and they will always say “we no go gree”, we have to ask what is a cattle colony or atleast try to get clarifications on where a cattle colony was practiced before and how the government intend to go about it.
We are at the heart of this write-up so we will be very careful in other to strike a balance between the parties involved. I say the government is yet to find a solution because the proposed cattle colony is not the answer to the conflict in some parts of the country.
According to Wikipedia , “Cattle colony is one of the neighbourhoods of Bin Qasim Town in Karachi , Sindh, Pakistan. This neighbourhood of Karachi is the centre of cattle and meat trade in Karachi . The cattle colony is the dairy products shopping and supply centre of Karachi . There are also many abattoirs and meat warehouses located in the cattle colony”.
It s very clear from the foregoing that cattle colony is entirely a Pakistani idea for its local cattle and beef market economy .
The cattle colony is one and exists only in the neighbourhood of Bin Qasim Town in Karachi. It is not in any other place in the entire Pakistan or elsewhere in the world. No other country in Africa, Asia, Europe, Americas or Australia has a cattle colony. Therefore, there is only one cattle colony in the world.
Nigeria as a nation have several weak institutions and as a matter of fact the nature of our country and with the level of corrupt minds that we find at the helm of affairs, the purpose of cattle colony cannot be achieved as it will be abused by some politicians for their selfish interests.
Even the Democratic system of government that is practice in Nigeria and all over the world, ours is still very weak and fragile as we fail to learn from other countries, now the questions are, how can the cattle colony that is found only in Pakistan survive in Nigeria?
Looking at it from another dimension, the Fulani herdsmen have not been living together and the government is still finding it hard to get a solution to the continuous herdsmen-farmers conflict, if the government now give them lands to live together and eventually if any problem arise as conflict is inevitable in a society, how will the government settle it? (These are rhetorical questions).
Conclusively, the government should provide more securities in the rural areas if they feel the lives of their citizens are important to them and continue to look for solutions to this ugly incident else it will get to a point when settlers in every part of the country aside the northern states will not allow the Fulani herdsmen come into their towns and villages talk more of residing with them.
Best regards.
God bless Kogi State.
God bless Nigeria.
– Ibrahim Muhammad Oziandu
08034626554
08071111596
muhammedoziandu@yahoo.com
Spread the love
