Enhanced security alone can’t solve herders-farmers dispute —Tinubu

All Progressives Congress chieftain, Bola Tinubu, says though enhancing the security apparatus in the country is important, the measure alone cannot solve the near-perennial dispute between herders and farmers in parts of Nigeria.

According to the former governor of Lagos State, the crisis between herdsmen and farmers in the country has an economic origin, and so, the solution must also take an economical dimension.

Tinubu stated this in Kaduna on Saturday while delivering a speech as the chairman of the 2021 Sardauna Memorial Lecture held in honour of one of Nigeria’s founding fathers, the late Sir, Ahmadu Bello.

He spoke on the topic, ‘Reduction of the Cost of Governance for Inclusive Growth and Youth Development in Northern Nigeria in a Post-COVID-19 Era’.

The APC chieftain said, “Like I said in my recent statement on the pressing issue of the herder and farmer dispute, we must appreciate that martial security measures alone will not suffice. Problems that are essentially of an economic origin must also have an economic solution. Enhanced security may be the necessary first step, but it cannot be the only step. We cannot resolve this problem by holding on to one-dimensional answers.

“We must all be dispassionate in our search for solutions. These challenges are multi-faceted and so shall the solutions must be.

“The issue of insecurity, poverty, unemployment and extremism have many things to do with governance, over time. At bottom we must tackle our deep and widespread poverty.”

It was earlier reported that of late, nomadic herders in parts of the country, especially in the South-West geopolitical zone, have been accused of trespassing on farmlands of host farmers with their cattle. Farm produce worth millions of naira have been destroyed in the last few months. Some herders have also been accused of raping women in host communities, kidnapping the rich and in some cases, killing host residents, amongst other unprintable crimes.

Tinubu in a statement on March 13, 2021, titled, ‘Tinubu’s Statement On The Herder Crisis’ had proposed some solutions, saying both farmers and herders need economic “assistance to break the current cycle of violence and poverty”.