#Reflections

‘Divider-in-Chief’, grazing routes and Nigeria’s contentious space

By Busuyi Mekusi

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Notwithstanding the variegation in the histories of the evolution of the earth, between the ‘big bang’, as well as other science-based speculations, and the Judeo-Christian involvement of a super Being, both Homo sapiens and animals arrogate spaces to themselves, in and within which they exist and function. Space ownership was first ‘corruptly’ owned, as the physical environment that existed in itself got appropriated as part of the expression of the greed of man.
Human civilisation has given rise to cultural, socio-economic and politico-spatial inscriptions and circumscriptions, leaving individuals to acquire, renounce and swap spaces, as done by Obaseki and Ize-Iyanmu in the Edo political illogicality. Furthermore, space has assumed capitalist expression, with the oppressive owners grinding their mills with the sweat of barely-fed and poorly-paid workers. Even though we now live in a ‘global village’, with increased calls for a borderless world, nations still reinforce boundaries, due to insecurity, poverty-induced (forced) migration, epidemic, etc. However, beyond all the shenanigans of territorialisation, reterritorialisation and deterritorialisation, space is a temporary ‘container’, in life and in death!
The Nigeria political space got enriched recently by the Presidency, with the ‘conferment’ of the title of ‘Divider-in-Chief’ on Obasanjo, who was, similarly like Buhari, a two-time Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This characterisation of Obasanjo came on the heels of his verdict at a Consultative Forum with some ethnic groups that Nigeria was tipping to a failed State, having being heavily ethnically and religiously divided. Obasanjo has shown, unequivocally, that there is no love lost between him and his estranged ‘friend’, Buhari. Akin to the satiric compositions of epistolary literature, from medieval Europe to postcolonial Africa, Obasanjo has variously deployed open letters to make acerbic assessments of the regimes of Buhari. Like a Laundromat, Obasanjo used the letter-writing strategy to demean the government of Jonathan, following which he supported Buhari in 2015. Whereas Obasanjo announced and accentuated his statesmanship with the tearing of his PDP membership card, his recent engagement with ‘secessionists’ was viewed by the Presidency as a somersault. Why throw away the selfish Obasanjo with the call to rescue Nigeria from the precipice?
Contestations for space have been amplified in Nigeria by the constant strives between pastoralists and farmers, with the attendant killings of cattle, burning of houses and farmlands, as well as maiming and killings of people. President Buhari recently blamed past governments for allowing people to encroach the grazing routes of herders, in apparent feigned explanation, albeit justification, of the devastating activities of herders across the country. Herding is majorly the culture of the Fulani whose definition of wealth and economic values is hinged on the ownership of herds. Whereas farmers’ worth is contained in the land, herders’ life depends on cattle, and they see every space as available to their herds to graze. The economic and nutritious value of livestock farming is huge, but not limited to cattle. The itinerant nature of pastoral trade contrasts sharply with the sedentary propensity of farming. The peripatetic movements of the Fulani herders occasion their transgressions of marked spaces and spatial delimitations, leading to vexatious confrontational dealings with the owners of such appropriated spaces.
One identifiable reason for spatial infringement by herders is space debilitation and shrinking, caused by climate change and desertification. Increased population also leads to more pressure on available space, including grazing areas. The climatic regression of the Sahel has precipitated movements of herders down South, in search of green vegetations for their animals. Worse still, the trans-border movements of herders in the sub-region as well as increase in the ownership of herds, even by Southerners, have put tremendous pressure on available grazing areas, in the face of farming in the South as mainstay. The foregoing adds up to the behavioural age-long Fulani-sense and attitude of annexation, ownership and control of space, with a good support-base from co-Fulani political elites. In recent times, the cacophonies of Miyetti Allah have attained violent and divisive reverberation. Yet the Presidency did not enroll them in the ‘Divider’ College of Obasanjo (DCO)!
The problems associated with open grazing in Nigeria are invariably expanding the fault lines. Central to these is the issue of insecurity. As a result of cattle rustling, herders now use both locally-made guns and AK-47 to defend themselves. It is also believed that criminally-minded ones use the arms to rob, rape, maim farmers and carry out kidnapping. Some cases of kidnap and killing, among which are that of Chief Olu Falae and the late daughter of Chief Reuben Fasoranti, have been traced to people of Fulani extraction. Stories by ‘freed’ kidnapped victims indicate that their ‘captors’ are Fulani herders who have camps in forests across Nigeria, South inclusive. People are kidnapped, dehumanised and ransomed like goats in a nation with sovereignty. The payment of ransom does not guarantee freedom to a victim anymore.
Katsina State, where President Buhari hails from, is equally ravaged as Borno, with Masari, the frustrated Governor throwing up his hands in the air. If citizens’ vulnerability and insecurity are part of the indices to determine a failed nation, as reported by global organisations, the new title for Obasanjo might be a misnomer, after all. President Buhari has been accused of treating criminal-minded herders with kid’s gloves, with the hullabaloos by Southerners about marginalisation and negatively-skewed headships of security agencies not receding soon. It may not be correct to argue that the President’s body language approves the nefarious activities of herders, but it is disheartening to note that the President is failing in his constitutional duty to protect his citizens.
As Miyetti Allah resists the enactments of laws banning open grazing in some States, we must note the painful realities around us, and face facts squarely. Herding and the itinerant present pervasive nature is counter-productive, and an invitation to anarchy. Herders’ invasions of both private and public spaces, rural and urban, under the excuse of blurred grazing routes are unacceptable. Increased number of herds is blamable on rich capitalist business people, including Southerners. Fulani herders, not the criminals among them, are vulnerable ‘labourers’, out to eke a living. Cattle business is just like any other private business that must not be used to destroy peoples’ farms and vegetations. As food insecurity looms by reason of herders’ activities, pollution of the environment breeds diseases, while the desecration of sacred places comes with repercussions.
That we may silence the ‘Divider-in-Chief’, there is the need for spatial circumscription, through the introduction of ranching and grazing reserves. The Fulani-herders must be re-socialised and re-orientated about itinerant herding and respect for other citizens. This is as a result of the inherent limitations in the age-long traditional pastoralism. All arm-carrying herders must be de-mobilised, with erring ones adequately punished.
There is the need to regenerate degraded environments, like the Sahel. Kidnapping and other violent crimes must be tackled transparently and scientifically, as failing would make the nation to respond to the voice of the ‘Divider-in-Chief’, in the face of the failing of the ‘Commander-in-Chief’. Mahatma Gandhi is right, that “earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed”. Nigeria is not a grazing route!

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