Bindow Takes on Starvation, Herdsmen and Farmers’ Clashes in Adamawa

Daji Sani writes on the measures taken by Governor Mohammed Jibrilla Bindow of Adamawa State in tackling problems of herdsmen/farmers’ clashes, as well as the hunger and starvation caused by the Boko Haram insurgency

The statistics given by humanitarian workers that tens of thousands of people are dying of hunger and starvation caused by frequent Boko Haram attacks in the North-east has spurred the Senator Mohammed Jibrilla Bindow’s administration in Adamawa State, among the frontline states to take a holistic approach in tackling the menace in the state.
Bindow had lamented that due to the continuous attacks and insecurity in the state, farmers have missed three planting seasons which are the major reasons that brought starvation and hunger ravaging the residents in the North-east.

Hence, Bindow said that the state government has also keyed into the Federal Government’s agricultural transformation programme to boost agriculture, as a panacea to hunger and starvation ravaging the areas.

The governor said to tackle hunger and starvation, his administration has taken short and long term plans in ensuring that food is surplus in the state in 2017 and beyond.

While speaking at the distribution ceremony of 105 new tractors to all the 21 local government areas in Yola, Bindow, said the tractors were purchased through Joint Account to boost mechanised agriculture in the state.

He said the warning of the United Nations was alarming and drastic measures needed to put in place to stem hunger and starvation in the North-east, if not it will be worst in 2017 as more people will die in the restive region.

According to Bindow, apart from procuring 105 tractors, his government had procured fertilisers, modernised seedlings, pumping machines for dry season farming adding that this was in preparation for 2017 to boost mechanised system of farming in the state.

“I want to assure you that my administration is still making some arrangements to provide more farming inputs and dry season fertiliser to farmers,” Bindow said.

Also speaking, the Adamawa State Commissioner of Agriculture, Alhaji Ahmadu Waziri, said the state government would help the local government in ensuring proper utilisation of the tractors for maximum benefits.

Responding on behalf of the local governments, the Chairman of Fufore Local Government, Alhaji Aliyu Boya, said the development would not only help in boosting agriculture at the grassroots but also the revenue and will further create employment in the councils.

Although the military has degraded the insurgency in the region but stakeholders said the current challenges in the area is the humanitarian crisis ravaging the restive region. They believe that if measures are not put in place, the fight against the insurgency has not ended.

The stakeholders had suggested that a holistic approach should be taken in tackling the menace by providing food, shelters, access to education for all, employment and rebuild roads and institutions destroyed by the insurgency in the area.

Apart from the challenges of the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northern Senatorial Zone of the state, the lingering crisis between the Fulani herdsmen/farmers in the Central Senatorial and Southern Senatorial Zones respectively have also affected farming activities and is a great challenge in the state.

Of recent the issues of security, how to improve food security, creation of jobs, rebuild schools and provision of qualitative education had dominated the executive council meetings of the Adamawa state government. The state executives after a series of meetings have decided to shift the EXCO meetings to the three senatorial zones because of the peculiar challenges of each zone.

Immediately after the meetings held in Numan, Mubi and Fofure of the three senatorial zones, Bindow said one of the approaches was to shift the state executive council meetings to the three senatorial zones of the state to enable the EXCO to know the quantum of the challenges bedeviling each senatorial zone.

He said another reason was to enable adequate planning and bring government presence closer to people at the grassroots and also create employment to the teeming youths. “If government activities are going on everywhere in the state hunger and unemployment will be a thing of the past.”

However, in an effort to build peace among herdsmen and the farmers, the state government in 2016 had set up an Administrative Penal of Enquiry headed by Mr. Joshua Atiku to investigate the matter and come up with recommendations on how to put the lingering crisis to rest in the state.

After the panel submitted its reports, the state government in its magnanimity had on 7th of January this year started the implementation of the panel’s recommendations by compensating herdsmen and farmers in Kodomun village, in Demsa Local Government Area of the state, with the cash donation of N10 million as well as 775 bags of rice to cushion the effects of the attack on the people of the area.

The donation, followed the recent attack in the area which left behind 45 cattle belonging to Fulani herdsmen dead.

Presenting the relief materials to the people of Kodomun recently, the governor who was represented by his deputy, Egnr. Martins Babale, said the assistance was part of the peace initiative building mechanism, put in place by government to find a lasting solution to the lingering crisis prevalence in the area.

He reiterated government efforts, in implementing the Joshua Atiku’s Administrative Panel of Enquiry, constituted by the state government to unravel the immediate and remote causes of crisis, saying the donation is part of the recommendations of the report.

“Government is going to implement the recommendations of the panel of Enquiry and the white paper by government and punish accordingly those involved in perpetrating the crisis. I urge you to be your brother’s keeper, by imbibing the spirit of forgiveness and forge ahead for the progress of the area and the state at large.”

Babale said government would soon constitute Peace Reconciliation Committee, to be saddled with responsibility of reconciling aggrieved people in the area, on the need to live in peace with one another.

Chairman of the affected community, Pius Raymond, appealed to government to beef up security to the area, as pockets of attacks are still recorded in the area. He urged government to reconstruct houses destroyed as a result of the attacks.

Earlier, Commissioner for Information and Strategy Mallam Ahmad Sajoh, said government has compensated the 47 cows belonging to Fulanis, which were killed by the communities which sparked off fear of reprisal attack and panic in the area.

Sajoh said the sum of N4.7 million was expended by government as compensation of the dead cows. He lauded the efforts of the state government in its peace building initiative to bring lasting solutions to farmers/herdsmen crisis in the state.

Barely 24 hours of the compensation, the Fulani herdsmen invaded three communities of Kwayine, Gidan Dadi and Karlahi near Kodomun in Demsa Local Government of the state killing three mobile police officers while two are still missing.

The Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Othman Abubakar, who confirmed the development to Journalists in Yola, said the policemen were among those drafted to secure Kwayine, Gidan Dadi and Karlahi communities after clashes that followed the killing of 47 cattle in the area and added that four rifles belonging to the policemen were also missing.

“Fulani militia attacked the three villages and we lost three of our gallant MOPOL while two are missing. We have constituted a high powered search team and by the special grace of God we are going to recover our men. On the side of the civilians, two bodies have so far been recovered,” Othman said.

Bindow who condemned the attack, which occurred less than 24 hours after a government delegation on peace building mission visited the area, the governor in a statement signed by the Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Sajoh, directed security agencies to deploy more personnel to the area. He described the attack as unfortunate and sad especially coming after recent peace and confidence building efforts.

“The Governor feels highly disturbed that after he had sent delegations on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday to interface with the different communities in the area, a clash could occur so soon thereafter.”

He assured residents of government’s resolve to restore peace to the affected areas and protect the lives of every citizen. Bindow saluted the gallantry of the police in confronting the attackers and urged them not to relent until normalcy is fully restored.

However stakeholders in the state said to end this crisis which is also a major factor in lingering hunger and starvation, all the farmers and herdsmen should be involved in the peace reconciliation bids.

They said research has shown that bringing only the representatives of farmers and herdsmen together to mend fences between the two warring groups was not enough to end the crisis but the government should organise a town hall meeting involving everybody, radio campaigns using local languages to create the awareness of coexisting together.

However, the UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Sahel, Toby Lanzer, had said earlier in 2016 that “Here is something we know. We know that in the next 12 months 75 or maybe as many as 80,000 children will die in the North-east of Nigeria unless we can reach them with very specific food.”

Observers have also warned earlier that with millions more short of food in North-eastern Nigeria and neighbouring countries, the situation could get much worse, and could turn into the biggest food crisis in the world.

This devastating statistical figures, had in September 2016 stimulated the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in partnership with the Adamawa State Government to flag off the expansion of its community-based management of acute malnutrition, and young child feeding in the 21 local government areas of the state.

The Adamawa State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Fatima Atiku Abubakar who flagged off the programme, says more than 800,000 children in the state are malnourished, noting that 38 per cent of children are under five years of age.

UNICEF field officer, Dr. Abudullahi Kaikai said UNICEF has supported the treatment of 31,415 children from June 2011 till date in the state. They have been able to do this through the provision of Ready-to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), training, supportive supervision and monitoring.

Kaikai said that an additional 682,823 children also received Vitamin A Supplements.

UNICEF nutrition specialist, Philomena Irene disclosed that UNICEF has provided clinics around the state to treat children who lost their mothers during child birth and victims of insurgency.

Investigation had revealed that since the early warnings by the UN and some humanitarian workers on scarcity of food and starvation in the North-east, the situation is getting worse by the day which had increased social vices such as prostitution, stealing, robbery and taking of hard drugs in Adamawa State.