The leaders of Fulani nationals in Nigeria, expressing concern over the challenges faced by pastoralists, have issued a stern warning, threatening to cease nationwide livestock sales if their grievances remain unaddressed. The communique, presented by the National President of MACBAN, Baba Othman Ngelzarma, highlighted the unfair targeting of pastoralists for crimes in the country.
Ngelzarma, joined by leaders of Tabital Pulaaku International and Fulbe Global Development and Right Initiative, alleged that the government has not made significant progress in tackling the root causes of the current conflict and the challenges faced by the Fulani community. He emphasized that Fulbe pastoralists often endure intimidation, segregation, molestation, and deprivation by security agents and vigilante groups, disrupting their traditional way of life.
The resolutions of the communique include acknowledging President Bola Tinubu’s efforts to address security challenges by accepting to implement the recommendations of the National Conference report on the Farmer/Herder conflict.
“That the current security challenges confronting the country and especially the Fulbe communities ranging from banditry, kidnapping, socio-economic marginalization, youth restiveness, drug abuse, cattle rustling, and proliferation of arms should be addressed as a matter of urgency and the necessary need to integrate the Fulbe to the larger society through education and social interaction.”
“That there has been resentment and wrong profiling of the Fulbe across the nation. The summit calls on the Government to partner Fulbe socio-cultural associations/opinion leaders and Security Agencies to curtail the current trajectories.”
“The summit opined that the Fulbe pastoralist will be compelled to stop selling livestock across the nation if immediate action to curtail the current challenges by all tiers of Government are not addressed.”
“The summit noted the serious encroachment and dilapidation of grazing reserves throughout the country and the need to channel resources arnd preserve them in all states where they exist, this is necessary in the view of the intent of settling of the entire pastoralists in the reserves for ranching”
The Summit also resolved that the committee constituted to implement the recommendations of the Orasanya Report, to consider as a necessity the retention of the National Commission for Nomadic Education as an Agency of the Federal Ministry of Education with specialised mandate of ensuring the delivery of functional basic education to nomadic communities.
“This is in consideration of a research report on out-of-school children in Nigeria, that 8 million out of over 10 million out-of-school
children in the country are pastoralists children.”
“Therefore, not retaining the commission with sufficient funding to educate the children is an eminent danger to our dear nation, the Communiqué said.
“Federal and State Governments should create Ministries of Animal Resources to enable the channeling of more resources towards developing the nation’s livestock industry to feed the nation’s ever growing population.”
“All states should acknowledge that the pastoralists are citizens of this country protected by the Constitution and are only practicing their Occupational trade in their states and their movement are as provided by the ECOWAS trans-human protocol of 1998 of which Nigeria is a signatory.”
“That the trend in social media is further fueling the conflict and current challenges of the Fulanis, unfortunately the social media is not regulated. The hate speeches in the social media targeted at the Fulanis should be addressed by the Government”, the Communiqué added.