By Leonard Karshima
Shilgba
There has
been a rash of proposals to resolve the menace of cattle herders’ invasion of
Nigerian farmlands, who are killing unarmed Nigerians (children, women and men)
and burning down or destroying houses and property, where understandably, no
feeds or grasses exist for their cattle. All of these are happening on the
victims’ ancestral lands, which the Nigerian constitution recognizes, even as
according to Section 25(1) of the Constitution, a Nigerian by birth is so
recognized only if either of his parents or grandparents “belongs or belonged to a community indigenous to Nigeria
In all
the proposals available to me, I see none that provides for the farmers, who
need even more parcels of land for their crop-farming activities than the
cattle herders do. Whether they are proposals for “grazing reserves across
Nigeria” or “Ranching”, for which the Federal Government seems prepared to
invest public money for private business (I am yet to be provided evidence that
the cattle herders are herding government animals), I see no provision of
a compensatory nature for Nigerian farmers and people, who have fallen victim
to the recurring impunities of cattle herders that seem to be ever strengthened
by some conviction of protection from certain quarters.
I wish
to remind here that whatever proposals that the federal government may
eventually adopt should be in agreement with the Constitution, otherwise they
will fuel more crises and provoke anarchy in the land. Even the weak, when they
face injustice, or perceive injustice that threatens their existence, will
fight back in a deadly manner; for, after all, they believe they only have all
to lose if they do nothing. But fighting back, they may have some to save.
Let
me cite a germane section of Nigeria
A citizen
of Nigeria
(a) be subjected either expressly by, or
in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive
or administrative action of the government, to disabilities or restrictions to
which citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of
origin, sex, religions or political opinions are not made subject; or
(b) be accorded either expressly by, or in
the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or
administrative action, any privilege or advantage that is not accorded to
citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex,
religions or political opinions.
A close
examination of the above Section shows that the constitution frowns at both
discriminatory restrictions (and imposed disabilities) and discriminatory
privileges or advantages. In view of this, I frame three questions for public
determination:
1. If the federal government chooses as a
solution, to expend public money and expropriate lands from the natives across
Nigeria, and hand over those to cattle herders for grazing, would that not
amount to discriminatory restriction (of the natives, who will lose ownership
of their ancestral lands) and discriminatory offer of privilege and advantage
(to the cattle herders), who would then, like the Biblical Levites, live in
government-protected “cities of refuge” across Nigeria?
