A former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Ibrahim Coomassie, has blamed state governors for the spate of killings occasioned by conflicts between herdsmen and farmers in the country.
Coomassie, who is also the Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), said land grabbers at the local government level also contributed to the crisis.
He said this on Monday at a conference organised by Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation and Arewa Research and Development Project (ARDP) in Kaduna State.
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The former police boss was worried that the crisis, if not properly managed, is capable of plunging Nigeria, especially the North into conflicts that have never been seen before.
He alleged that a countless number of lives and property have continually been lost as land grabbers connive with corrupt local and state government officials to lands reserved as cattle routes and accused governors of denying citizens of their right to economic activity.
“In recent years, land grabbers in conjunction with corrupt local or state government officials, have bought off most of the lands that serve as cattle routes, leading to clashes between the two,” Coomassie said
“Now, state Governors have joined the fray by banning grazing in their states thus denying a significant proportion of citizens the right to their economic activity. Today, there are too many flashpoints, not just in the North but all over the country.
“A case in point is the incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers that in recent times have assumed a most destabilising dimension, which if not managed properly could plunge the nation (particularly in the north) into internecine conflicts – the likes of which have never been seen before,” he added.
According to the former IGP, seasonal migration of herdsmen is an age-long economic activity that is recognised the world over.
He noted that the maintenance of cattle routes and grazing lands has been a major preoccupation of governments for centuries, even before the advent of colonial rule and the adoption of western-style democracies.
“This is because herdsmen live in a symbiotic relationship with farmers. From as far as Mali, herdsmen will come all way down to as distant a place as Port Harcourt in the coastal region of Nigeria and depart as soon as the rainy season sets in,” he said.
“Often, farmers will request these herdsmen to camp on their fields so that they can fertilize the land with the dung of their animals,” Coomassie said.