1 week Ago By Philip Nyam
Hon. Terseer Ugbor represents Kwande/Ushongo Federal Constituency of Benue State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and is the Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Environment. He speaks to PHILIP NYAM on the impact of climate change and farmer-herder crisis in Benue and North Central region, his efforts to mitigate the situation and the causes and way forward As Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Environment, you recently convened a stakeholder’s forum on the impact of climate change in Benue.
You also premiered a documentary on the farmer-herder conflict in the state titled “Behind the Valley”. What was the intention of the forum? It’s a great privilege to be able to share the work that we are planning to do or have initiated. As you mentioned, we convened the stakeholder engagement a few days ago to premiere a documentary called “Behind the Valley”.
Behind the Valley because Benue as you know, lies within the valley and when we say behind the valley, we mean the issues that go on, which people don’t see every day on some of the crises and the conflicts going on in Benue. So, we came up with this initiative to showcase the challenges being faced by our people; showcase the challenges being faced by farmers across Benue and North Central as a whole to ultimately attract support and track funding from both the international and local communities towards resolving the IDP issues. Of course, I am empowering the people on modern agricultural practices, climate, and smart agriculture; empowering them with Better Homes where they can start in their new lives.
Of course, we talked about capacity building, peace building and engagement with farmers and herders, traditional and community leaders, to see how we can bring the issue of farmer-herder crisis under control. So, the event a few days ago was to launch this documentary, present the concept notes, which we did. And it got very good reviews.
It was well attended and already we have partnerships and their calls from several development organisations who have shown interest in collaborating with my office to see that we can implement this me and we can take this message to the international community at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly and the climate conference later this year. So, we think that with what we’ve done so far and the interest that um our initiative has generated, we were on the right track towards at least making a mark on herder-farmer conflicts in Nigeria. Do you have plans to make additional legislation to address this challenge? Yes, there are a few bills already in the works in the National Assembly.
I am aware that my senior colleague, Senator Titus Zam has proposed a bill on the establishment of a ranching commission to identify locations across the country specifically in the northern region where the Fulanis are indigenous. We want to see how we can invest in the animal pastoralism in Nigeria so that the source of our beef in Nigeria, which is majorly from the Fulani herdsmen will not be cut short and we can also help them to improve the systems of animal husbandry, improve the technologies that they are used to over the years and help them to begin to consider ranching as an option for the management of their cattle. The President has also proposed the Ministry of livestock, which we also think is a good initiative.
We also believe that if this ministry is up and running, it will look at the issue of livestock, very holistically. And of course, in the long term, help to reduce the issues of farmer-herder conflicts in the country. I want to just point out that if you look at the Federal Government investments in agriculture over the years, there’s been a lot of focus on farming.
There’s been a lot of focus on entrepreneurship in the farming sector. So, several years ago, we had a lot of entrepreneurship in fish production but there’s been not much focus over the years on how we can invest more in our ranching industry in the country. Benue State used to have a ranch called Ikyogen Cattle Ranch, which is right in my constituency.
In fact, that is my village. It was set up in the 80s and was one of the most sophisticated ranches at the time. We used to crossbreed some of the cows we found around Africa, which we eventually merged with what we call the Tiv cows.
Unfortunately, this Ranch has been closed down. As a matter of fact, the ranch is currently occupied by refugees from Cameroon, who are escaping the Cameroonian separatist fighting. So, the idea of ranching did not start today.
It has been there for many years, in many states. So, we want to see a return to the ranching system. We want to see a situation where more enlightenment and more capacity building for farmers and herdsmen in the country to live in a mutually beneficial situation where there’s little conflict and everybody flourishes.
What are the short term plans you have in place to tackle this menace considering the fact that many people have been killed and many more displaced with many farmers abandoning their farms? I think one of the immediate steps that the government needs to take is mediation between the farmers and the herders in the country; and of course to improve security and protection for farmers so they can return to their farms. Security is very paramount in achieving these things, but we decided to look at it a lot from the humanitarian perspective. The displaced persons angle, because when we did a survey of the situation, we found out That over 100,000 people have been displaced so far just in the last one year.
Some other statistics show that over two million people have been displaced in the country due to farmer-herder conflicts. So, one of the areas that I decided to look at the issue is, how to help these displaced people to be resettled in their communities and then go back to their farming activities. They need more security cover and we are engaging the state and the federal governments.
We’ve recently engaged with the Nigerian Immigration Service in Benue to start up a command at the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. If you look at the Cameroon Border in Benue State, there’s no border post, there’s no immigration, there’s no security. At present, the next border post from Benue is in Adamawa, which I hear is over 2,000 kilometers.
So there’s a wide range of space where there is absolutely no security. And so the herders, bandits and traffickers and all kinds of criminals have an easy flow into these farming communities. They cause the destruction we are witnessing and so we are appealing and engaging with the relevant government agencies, to take the short security very seriously to help to resettle our people back into their farmlands.
We are also concerned about the storage and processing facilities in the country. We’ve found that even in the situation of the farmer-herder conflicts, the little farming that is going on, almost half of the produce is wasted and there’s very little value. Addition to the goods that we produce in the country as a whole, especially in the North Central.
As you know, Benue is the highest producer of yams, highest producer of pineapples, highest producer of grains and so many other products in the country. But how well have we added value to these so that we can earn more from them. Our farmers can earn more from their farming activities.
I think once we’re able to collaborate and bring these cross-cutting issues to the table in the short term to medium-term, we should have a proper relief from this crisis. You are sourcing for US$150 million in support for the displaced people. How do you intend to go about it? We are discussing with the global environment fund; we’re discussing with the global climate fund that is under the United Nations.
We are discussing with the Development Bank of Nigeria, the African Development Bank and we’re discussing with the Nigerian government. We intend to take this message to the international community to donate and see how they can intervene in the challenges that we’re facing, as a result of climate change, leading to the herder-farmer conflicts. We have some commitments from several partners who are working directly with us and already they’ve booked us to screen the documentary at some of the upcoming international engagements and conferences, where most of the global donors and partners will be present.
And so, we hope that we can attract this international funding and we can also call the attention of the federal government to see our concept notes as a viable mechanism towards achieving the objective of the federal government in reducing the farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria Our target is 150 million. It could be more because the problem is far greater than even that amount, but we tend to start small. We want to build green homes to resettle the people, we want to train them and integrate them back into the communities.
So for states and local governments that are interested in partnering with us, they can provide, available land where we can build homes for the displaced persons and retrain them and reintegrate them into society, we are willing and available to cooperate. We hope that by the first quarter of next year, we will have begun to attract some of the funding that we are anticipating so that we can start the work to achieve the goal of our concept. You keep saying ‘we’; who are the ‘we’ and target beneficiaries? Yes, we are talking about some of the civil society organisations.
Some of the partners that have signed up to join us on this project; we’re working with the African Energy Council who are experts in renewable energy integration. We’re working with the Women Environmental Programme, who are experts in community mobilisation, experts in implementing programmes and projects for women and the less privileged we’re working with several others and partners like I mentioned, Development Bank. So, we’re partners where we’re collaborators on this programme and I believe that more partners have indicated interest to join the initiative with us.
I’m sure. So by the time we start our full reach out, I’m sure we’ll have a lot more partners including state governments who are also major stakeholders in this project. When I say ‘we’, I’m talking about the collective, the Nigerian people, and the government agencies, who are responsible for managing the crisis.
I think once we have a good number of stakeholders on board with us, achieving our targets of 150 million and even more, will not be much of a challenge for the targeted beneficiaries. Of course, they are the displaced persons across the North Central, starting from Benue state, especially the farmers who we need to train on modern farming technologies and climate, smart agriculture, green farming, etc. the beneficiaries also include the herdsmen who we need to be trained on the practice of ranching and of course, we have to help them to upgrade and settle down instead of the movement from one point to the other.
We need to also make more revenue from our dairy. We can go back to the time when we used to produce hides and skin from our cattle industry, which is one of the best quality leather. Back in the days, it used to earn Nigeria a lot of revenue, we need to go back into dairy farming.
As you know, almost 100 per cent of our milk is imported into the country and we have a lot of capacity to generate new care from our cattle industry. So, there’s a lot more value we can gain from both the farming and the cattle industry in the country that we’re not tapping into right now. And I believe that with this kind of initiative and so many other initiatives being about other agencies together we can help to achieve more for the country.
At the stakeholder’s forum, most of the speakers including Speaker Tajudeen Abbas were unanimous in blaming the farmer-herder crisis on climate change. But there is also a contention in some quarters that this crisis is a calculated attempt by the predominantly Muslim Fulani herders to take over land from the Christian dominated North central population. In developing your concept notes, did you take note of this? When you look at the problem from a narrow prism and from the immediate situation on ground between farmers and herders, you can call it a genocide, you can call it an invasion, and you can call it an unprovoked killing of our people.
But when you broaden your scope, you find out that the problem is more than just a narrow problem of genocide. It’s a broader problem. From our studies, we found out that it’s a struggle for land and water.
It’s an economic war being waged by the predominantly Fulani herders to grab land and water for their own sustenance, and the sustenance of their livestock. This is what they’re known to do for many centuries. So, what we’ve decided to do is to look at this issue from a broader perspective on why the sudden migration of herdsmen into the North Central, why the sudden interest in our communities and in our water sources.
When we took a holistic study of the problem, we found that it is not just about the genocide happening on ground, it’s a problem of climate change. The Lake Chad Basin has dried up by 80 to 90 per cent. So, most of the people that depend on this Lake, especially the herders have been displaced and have to leave to other communities in search of greener pastures.
And then, we looked at the problem of the desertification in the north- how has this also contributed towards pushing herders to move southwards in terms of greener pastures. We also looked at the issue of banditry and cattle rustling up north. So, these issues of climate change, terrorism and banditry that have plagued our country, especially in Northern Nigeria have all combined to push herders down south, which has led to a lot of the increased conflict that you see today.
Unfortunately, because the fight is an economic fight, economic war, it’s a fight for survival. So, the herders have come very aggressively into our communities. Our people are poor farmers who don’t have weapons, they don’t have guns to defend themselves.
We’ve been trying a lot; the immediate past government of Benue State made a lot of cries and noise about the issue of killings by herdsmen and bandits but we did not achieve much results from just crying and talking about the killings. So, we decided to take a different approach because of course, you know the saying that if you do one thing over and over again and you don’t achieve results, you try something else. In this case, we decided to try a different approach- to zoom out of the problem and look at it from a larger perspective; to look at it as a Nigerian problem.
So, we look to create these clusters and to see what the migration patterns are, what are the number of herdsmen coming into the North Central, why are they now coming to settle unlike in the past when they came to graze and go. Who is coordinating this initiative to address the farmer-herder conflicts? Like I mentioned before, we’re working with the African Energy Council, which is the umbrella body coordinating. It’s more of a consortium.
It’s more of a consumer of two, three organisations who have expertise in different areas of the solution that we are providing. So, there’s expertise in building green homes and integrating renewable energy. There’s expertise in climate, smart agriculture.
There’s expertise in peace building, negotiation, and mediation between herders and family communities. There’s expertise in engagement with traditional rulers, and community leaders. So, we’ve looked at the entire scope of what we’re trying to achieve, and we’ve brought in experts and agencies that have several roles to play.
Your constituents are also victims of these attacks and conflicts. What is your experience in terms of impact in your constituency and the state at large? According to the Benue State government, in 2018 the state lost over $1 billion in revenue, as a result of the clashes. Our economy has been greatly affected because 80 per cent of our people are farmers.
And so, when you displace farmers in Benue State, you are also decimating the economy of the state. So, the state has lost so much in agriculture, in our markets, especially among the farming communities. We’ve lost so much in terms of lives.
As of the last count, 1,800 people were killed and over 100,000 displaced recently. People are now living in IDP camps and some of them have integrated into the communities, putting a lot of pressure on their hosts’ communities, on their resources, their farmlands, on their food and other forms of resources. One of the issues that bothers me the most is the future of our children Benue and the future of our communities.
As of the last counts, we learned that over a 100 children are born in the IDP camps every week. And, So if these children are born 10 years from now, 20 years from now, if the children don’t have an education, if they remain illiterate without proper nutrition, they will grow up to become the problem of our society. So, we have a situation in which we now have homeless children, street children who have no hope, no education, no parents, no guidance, and no hope for tomorrow.
This will become a major problem for our community. So as we tackle the security challenges, we need to look at those who have been displaced, how they are living and what their future will be. Because, if you solve the problem of the crisis today and you don’t tackle the problem of those that have been displaced and born in IDP camps, then a few years from now, you will be having thousands of children without education, that will become a bigger problem for our state.
We’re trying to see how we can integrate these children back into schools, provide better health care, better nutrition, so that they grow up with a sense of belonging, a sense of responsibility. This is to make them contribute to society effectively, instead of abandoning them on the streets to become a bigger problem for us tomorrow. Are you considering only Benue state in this initiative or does it cut across the entire country? We’re looking at the problem as a North Central problem but starting from Benue state because Benue as you know, is the food basket of the nation.
And so, a lot of the waste associated with the attacks and killings have led to the lack of production in farming. So, we believe that if we start to tackle the problem from Benue State, then we can expand to cover Plateau, Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa and other states in the North Central, who have the same problem. We are tackling it as a North Central problem but using Benue State as a case study.
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