Herders’ association harps on education to end crisis

The Kebbi State Secretary of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association Of Nigeria (MACBAN), Mallam Ibrahim Jodi, has called on members to give their children western education in a bid to end the clashes between herdsmen and farmers nationwide and enlighten them how best to run cattle business.

Addressing the executive members of the Zuru chapter of the association at the weekend in the community, he noted that the parent body was not comfortable with the happenings in the country.

He said: “You people would serve for four years and you should make sure that you tackle the menace by ending the persistence of the herdsmen-farmers crisis in Zuru emirate.”

Jodi noted that the body would return to the old Fulani way of punishing deviants with a view to ridding the ethnic nationality of bad eggs.

The chairman of Fulani and Farmer Reconciliation Committee in the council area, Ayuba Dogo Dabai, said the panel had visited six districts to foster friendship peace and harmony.

He commended the council chairman for inaugurating the committee, adding that it had reduced the rift in the area.

The council boss, Kabir Rafi, admonished the new executives to be transparent in their dealings.

The chairman of the association, Abubakar Kabir, thanked the state government, Emir of Zuru and the council chairman for standing by the body always, pledging that the clash was going to be a thing of the past in the area.

However, former President Olusegun Obasanjo says education was key to containing insurgency in Borno State and the entire North East geopolitical zone.

Speaking at the weekend in Maiduguri after coordinating a three-day Nigeria Zero Hunger Forum (NSHF), he warned that the lingering Boko Haram insurgency had “an incubating period of 15 years to come.”

His words: “Unless the present education level in the North-East is matched with what is obtained in the South-West region, by inculcating the values that guard against the emergence of Boko Haram, women, children and youths will become new breeds of insurgents by 2032.”

Also, Governor Kashim Shettima has accorded “top most priority” to the Agricultural Transformation Programme (TAP) to end insurgency and poverty in Borno State.

In his remarks at the event, he noted that his administration had initiated programmes to fast-track farmer support services, sensitise on agricultural mechanisation, processing and farmer-entrepreneurial skills to increase value chain.

He said: “These TAP programmes were also designed to add value and provide markets for farm produce as well as to guarantee food security and wealth creation in the state.

“In the pre-insurgency era, we were the major producers of cereal crops, livestock, fisheries and people enjoyed a prosperous life.”

He noted that prior to 2009, the state was one of the major producers of crops, livestock and fishes nationwide.

On the insurgency and terrorism in the region, Shettima said: “Poverty is one of the root causes of insurgency and we are geared to fight poverty through effective utilisation of agriculture and water resources that abound in Lake Chad and its basin.

“We have invested much in agriculture. Agriculture transformation is a struggle that we must fight and we must win that war to end this ongoing insurgency.”