Nigerian military tackling farmers-herdsmen crises, ex-Senate president tells British parliament

Ameh Ebute, president of the senate in the Third Republic, told the British parliament on Wednesday that the Nigerian military has been able to tackle the lingering crisis between herders and farmers in the country.

Ebute specifically noted that military has been able to curtail the nagging crises between the two groups.

Speaking at a roundtable with members of the British parliament, the former lawmaker faulted TY Danjuma, former chief of army staff, over his recent submission that soldiers where partial in their fight against terrorism.

Ebute said Danjuma was wrong because any Nigerian soldier that engages in acts of brigandage or molestation of civilians is now promptly disciplined accordingly under the current administration.

Senator Ameh Ebute delivered a position paper titled “Tackling the Violence between Livestock Farmers and Cultivators in Nigeria.”

“Violent clashes between two sets of farmers in Nigeria, cultivators, and livestock farmers have been a major feature of the Nigerian security landscape since 2003. These clashes escalated in late 2017 with the massacre of over a hundred people at Agatu in Benue State. 2018 witnessed a further deterioration in the violence,” he said.

“While a responsible government has a solemn obligation to ensuring the safety of its citizens and implementing policies and programs that engender peaceful co-existence among its ethnic, regional and religious diversities of its population, it must ensure too that crisis between any two groups of its population is not exploited for the selfish and nefarious purposes of its detractors.”

Ebute argued that the administration of Buhari was able to make substantial gains in the fight against terrorism.

“Boko Haram was routed from its Sambisa Forest stronghold. The Nigerian military recaptured Mubi, Gwoza, Baga and other major cities and villages that had been overrun by Boko Haram,” he said.

“Coordinated attacks by the air force and the army seriously degraded the fighting capabilities of Boko Haram.

“Recognizing the regional dimensions in Boko Haram activities, the Buhari administration initiated a multilateral approach to fighting against Boko Haram by entering into a regional alliance with the neighboring states of Niger, Chad, Cameroon and the Republic of Benin. Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians who had fled to those neighboring countries in the wake of Boko Haram seizure of their towns and villages returned to Nigeria.”