The Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, on Thursday, appealed to herdsmen and farmers across the country to maintain peace as the National Assembly is ready to proffer lasting solutions to the perennial clashes over grazing by cattle.
Saraki spoke when a group of herdsmen, Kautal Hore Socio-Cultural Association, Jigawa State branch, visited him in his office, in Abuja.
He described the perennial clashes between farmers and herdsmen as unfortunate and appealed to the herdsmen to maintain peace at all times.
According to him, “the National Assembly and all the stakeholders have been meeting on how to ensure that there is permanent peace between the two major groups in the nation’s agricultural system
“There must be peace. There must be peaceful coexistence and there cannot be peace when human lives are being wasted. The National Assembly will stop at nothing to ensure that there is peace. We will not stop working until there is peace between the farmers and herdsmen in this country. Please, be patient.”
He promised that the Senate will soon come out with suggestions on how to end the conflict.
The chairman of the group, Umar Kabir Hadejia, said the Fulanis are traditionally a nomadic and pastoral people who rear their cattle and sheep across the vast territory of Nigeria.
He lamented that due to urbanisation, there had been an increasing trend of conflict between farmers and the pastoralists largely due to the Fulanis seeking fertile grazing lands for their developmental purposes.
This action, he said, had resulted in violent attacks and reprisal counter attacks between the herdsmen who feel that their way of life is being threatened on one hand and the farmers on the other hand who felt aggrieved that their farmlands and crops were lost due to the activities of the herdsmen.
He informed that Fulanis believed that provision of grazing reserves would boost livestock population, lessen the difficulty of herding and reduce seasonal migration as well as enhance the interaction among farmers, pastoralists and other rural dwellers.
