Senator Henry Seriake Dickson has renewed his call for the Federal Government to fast-track ranching as a solution to perennial farmers-herders clashes across the country.
His position is contained in a condolence message to the governments and people of Benue and Plateau over the most recent killings in the States.
“The time has come for everyone to see this problem as an existential Nigerian issue of national security that needs to be addressed, deviod of ethnicity, religion, politics and sentiments that normally colour national discourses.
“This was why, on the floor of the Senate while contributing to a motion on this issue, I urged the Senate to resolve to implementing mandatory ranching, support and orientation even for the herdsmen, followed by the prohibition of open grazing nationwide.
“Using the newly established Ministry of Livestock, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Nigeria and other institutions, we must create a mechanism and funding for compulsory ranching and support policy for livestock, herders, aquaculture and all other agribusinesses across the country,” the statement read.
“Then a plan must be made to strengthen all the security agencies and community leaders to work together to combat and flush out all bandits and criminals from our rural areas and forests and enforce prohibition of open grazing throughout Nigeria. The Senate adopted the motion.
“We must do this as a national imperative without politics or sentiments,” Senator Dickson said.
The Senator representing Bayelsa West continued, “I have spoken with my brother and friend, the Governor of Benue State, H.E. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, as well as officials of the Plateau State Government, to offer my condolences on behalf of my family and the good people of my Senatorial District, and on behalf of all Nigerians of goodwill, over the dastardly and callous massacres that occurred recently in communities in those two States.
“Benue, Plateau, Zamfara, Southern Kaduna, and some other States have borne the brunt of criminality, lawlessness, and brutality in a genocidal magnitude and frequency.
“Not only are armed gunmen terrorising and ransacking hapless communities, and commiting mass murders in these States, but the level of banditry, kidnapping, and killing has affected many other States as well, almost to the point of eclipsing the Boko Haram insurgency that has bedevilled the North Eastern part of our country for years,” Senator Dickson said.
“It is not acceptable in this country or any other,” he emphasised, “for people wherever they are to be attacked, maimed, killed, and communities ransacked at will without consequences, while the rest of the country and the world move on. It is the clearest evidence of State failure and collapse.
“At this point, the leadership of this country and the topmost hierarchy of the security architecture need to have a frank and honest conversation about what to do, and do it fast.”
He listed the factors involved in the national security crisis to include competition for resources leading to farmers/herders clashes, activities of illegal miners, criminal displacement of indigenous people for land acquisition, and activities of criminals, kidnappers, bandits, and climate crisis.
“While there are elements of banditry and sheer criminality that have nothing to do with competition for resources, there is also a well-known angle that has to do with perennial clashes between herdsmen and farmers in communities across the country,” he said.
Senator Dickson promised “to raise these issues with the relevant authorities, in the coming day”.