Ruga might spark off an explosion, says Soyinka

Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate, says the proposed Ruga settlement of the federal government is not the best approach to resolving the herders-farmers crisis.

The federal government had proposed the idea as a means of addressing the incessant clashes between cattle rearers and farmers.

However, many stakeholders, including the Niger Delta elders and some governors, have opposed it.

Lending his voice to discredit the initiative, Soyinka said if not well handled, Ruga could cause trouble in the country.

The literary icon said the federal government’s approach is not the way it is done in other climes.

Soyinka said President Muhammadu Buhari ought to have lost the presidential election owing to the way he handled the farmers-herders crisis.

He spoke with reporters at the launch of United Nations Solutions 17 SDG programme in Lagos on Tuesday.

“Ruga is going to be an explosion if not handled with care. But why do we not take our policies from good models?” he asked.

“This is not the way people and countries deal with issues of cattle. I travel everywhere. It has to be handled in a way that is logical, comprehensible to the environment. When a cow walks up to the window of my house in Abeokuta, a house which is located in a residential area, then there’s a problem.

“When a cow goes to Ijebu Ode and eat up their plant seedlings and so on and you expect people to be quiet? People have been killed in hundreds just because of the failure of leadership at a critical time.

“And the cattle herders have been given a sense of impunity. They kill without any compunction, they drive away the farmers who have been contributing to the food solutions in the country, the cattle eat their crops and then you come up with Ruga.

“I think that there is going to be trouble in this country if this Ruga thing is not handled imaginatively and with humanity as priority. Any country where cattle takes priority over human life is definitely at an elementary stage.”