Gombe Gov’s Misguided Ultimatum to Farmers

A recent ultimatum given by Governor Muhammadu Yahaya of Gombe State for farmers in the state to harvest their crops before the end of January 2024 to enable herdsmen to graze their cattle on farmlands without inhibition may have explained the impunity and lawlessness of the pastoralists who erroneously believe it is their constitutional right to have equal access to farmlands with farmers and landowners in other parts of the country, Ejiofor Alike reports 

As part of what he considered as genuine efforts to reduce the perennial clashes between farmers and herders, the Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Yahaya, recently told farmers in the state to hasten their harvests to enable herders to graze their cattle on farmlands without inhibition.

Before the governor’s order, the state government had issued a directive to farmers to harvest their produce before the end of January 2024 in order to reduce the perennial farmer-herder clashes.

The state government also outlawed the burning of remnants on the farmlands, saying it would serve as food for cattle.

By this directive, there is strong indication that the Gombe State Government controls the use of farmlands and their ownership in the state and not individuals and families, unlike in southern Nigeria where lands are owned and controlled by individuals and families except in special cases where the government acquires land for public use.

It is only a state government that controls the use of farmlands and allocates them to whoever it wants that can give an ultimatum to farmers on when to harvest crops, otherwise farmers in southern states have exclusive rights on the use of their lands that are not acquired by the government.

However, what has become obvious is that herdsmen who overrun farmlands in the southern parts of the country with their cattle and kill farmers who resist their attempts to graze on their crops are emboldened by this kind of ultimatum because they lack the awareness to understand the differences in land ownership between the north and the south.

It is unthinkable for any southern governor or state government to give an ultimatum to farmers in a state on when to harvest their crops because farmlands and crops are treasures that are guarded jealously by their owners.

Goat or pig farmers in the south, who allow their animals to roam freely on people’s farmlands and graze on crops are committing serious offences punishable by law.

The farmers in most states in the south have exclusive rights on the use of their lands and are not under any obligation or compulsion to make their lands available for open grazing even when the lands are fallow.

However, the situation appears to be different in Gombe State where the state government decides when farmers and herders should have access to farmlands.

Speaking recently at Gombe Emir’s Ground, during the flag-off of the second phase of palliatives distribution to 90,000 underprivileged residents, Governor Yahaya urged farmers to keep to the January harvest deadline to forestall farmer-herder clashes.

He said: “For those yet to harvest, they should do so urgently before the end of this month, which is the date fixed for us to allow cattle rearers access to the farmlands; by then farmers would finish their harvest and every farm produce would reach its destination.”  

Though the state government had earlier restricted migrating herders from coming into the state to forestall herder-farmer clashes, it had also insisted that farmers should harvest their crops at “the appropriate time” and also desist from burning the remnants on their farmlands after harvest to enable cattle rearers feed their animals.

It is curious that instead of outlawing the primitive open grazing in the 21st Century and adopting ranching as a state policy, Governor Yahaya chose to give farmers and herders equal access to farmlands.

Though it is within the constitutional right of the state government to make legislations on land, given that the Land Use Act vests such powers on state governments, the state government’s directive may have dire consequences in other states.

With the position of the Gombe State Government, the perennial clashes between herders and farmers in the state will not only persist, migrating herders from the state will also lay claim to equal ownership of lands in other states, particularly the middle belt and the southern states, where such equal or joint ownership doesn’t exist. 

While the clashes between the herders and the farmers will persist in the state because both parties are not enlightened enough to stick religiously to the state government’s rules, clashes will also persist in other states where the herders will migrate to and lay claim to equal access to farmlands with the farmers, who constitutionally own the lands.

Apart from the destruction of their crops by the herdsmen, the farmers in the state have been facing increasing cases of theft of farm produce.

While some farmers chose to sleep on their farms to keep vigil, others pay between N30,000 and N50,000 monthly to vigilantes to safeguard their farms.

Investigation by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Billiri, Yamaltu-Deba, Kaltungo, Nafada, Kwami and Akko local government areas (LGAs) of the state had revealed that farmers keep 24-hour vigilance over their yet-to-be harvested crops.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, ASP Mahid Abubakar, had told NAN that such a complaint had not been received at the command.

Abubakar advised farmers in the state to cultivate the attitude of reporting such cases.

“If we receive such reports, we will know how to provide adequate security.

“What you don’t know you can’t act on; I am just hearing this from you but if we have a formal complaint from the affected farmers, we will take measures,” he reportedly said.

It is obvious that the police are already overwhelmed and overstretched by the herdsmen crisis and do not have sufficient manpower to handle cases of theft of farm produce.

To curb the clashes between the herders and farmers in the state, Governor Yahaya should adopt ranching as a state policy and stop encouraging the primitive system of open grazing, which cannot provide a lasting solution to the clashes.

Governor Yahaya’s misguided ultimatum to the farmers in the state gives the herdsmen migrating to the south the false impression that they have equal rights with farmers over lands and this impression emboldens them to destroy farmlands and kill farmers who resist the invasion of their farms.  

The Global Terrorism Index had in 2015 named the herdsmen as the fourth deadliest known terrorist group operating in Nigeria and parts of the Central African Republic (CAR).

Governor Yahaya should encourage ranching in the interest of both the herders and the farmers.