Since the beginning of human civilization and even in Bible times, herdsmen are generally resented and loathed by most people due to the peripatetic, precarious, and rugged nature of their jobs which makes them ferocious, violent, and horribly unsociable with little or no empathy for human lives except for their beloved herds. The Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria of today are no less crude, bestial, and savage when it comes to issues that compromise the safety or wellbeing of their cattle. The Fulanis rarely eat beef and mourn whenever a member of their herds dies whether killed by wild animals, illness, cattle rustlers, or angry farmers. This informs why they place little value on human lives whenever anyone kills one of their cows, or denies them passage for grazing (on even farmlands). Many farmers especially those who happen to be alone or very few in their farms when some mean Fulani herdsmen come grazing by with their cattle and try to prevent them from gracing in to their farms have been killed by the Fulani herdsmen who are always armed at least with swords, arrows, and knives if not with AK-47. While growing up in the North I once questioned a Fulani man for strapping a knife to his trousers and his responds was that the knife is part of their fashion. Even as a little boy who accompanied my grandfather to his farms back in the 1980’s I can remember how he diplomatically pleads with Fulani herdsmen who often lead their herds towards the streams bordering his farm. Fortunately, the herdsmen often listen to him albeit grudgingly conducting their livestock from encroaching his farms though, they still damage part of the farms then. He begs because he couldn’t afford to make quarrel with them and he knows how many a farmers have been hacked to their untimely death alone in the bush. In French speaking Africa, the fulanis are called peul. The counterparts of Nigerian fulanis in Kenya are the Massai herdsmen. The Massai herdsmen openly carry AK-47 and automatic weapons while herding their animals maybe to combat wild animals, cattle rustlers, or robbers I don’t know. Truly they often encounter wild animals especially hyenas in Nigeria who often kill or injure their herds. I remember as a teenager in the bush once seeing a Fulani man weeping for one of his cows suffering to death from injuries inflicted on her by some hyenas. Fulanis in Nigeria are under the umbrella body of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN). The president of MACBAN on Friday 4^th March 2016 claims they massacred 500 persons in Agatu town of Benue State because 10,000 of their cattle were killed by Agatu farmers even though the number of cattle he claims are bogus, one must have to ask if animal lives are to be compared to human lives. That act by the herdsmen is the epitome of inhumanity and primordial bestiality in any age of human civilization, past or present.

Today, the Fulani herdsmen have in all killed over a dozen thousand people in Nigeria over the last 16years especially in the Plateau and Benue axis mostly over revenging killing of their cattle by angry local farmers whose sources of livelihood have been destroyed by the cattle or due to outright denial of passage to herdsmen from grazing in to local farm areas by worried farmers. The killing cuts across every parts of the country including South East, South West, South-South, and even the core North itself, although middle belt of Nigeria remains the epicenter of violence and softest target all due to the agrarian nature of the people’s occupation, government negligence, and the peacefully passive nature of the people towards violence-they rarely pay back evil for evil.

What are the solutions to these perennial crises between herdsmen and farmers all over Nigerian communities? How can we arrest the problems in the short, medium, and long term? What and what must the government at all levels and arms, communities, farmers, security agents, and the herdsmen themselves start doing immediately to quench the hell the country has found itself in with Fulani herdsmen in killing spree? The answers basically over on education, empowerment, tracking, and legislation.

First, we must jettison the idea of mapping out grazing zones all over the country for Fulani herdsmen to follow as grazing path or graze free zones. The truth is that such grazing area will never be enough for all the millions of cattle under different herdsmen and there will always be neighboring farms for the livestock to stray into whether the herdsman knows it or not. There will always be issues in dry seasons with limited pastures and dried water beds. The population explosion in the country makes such impossible. Instead of grazing zones, there ought to be big ranches especially in the less fertile areas which will then be treated with proper fertilizers and nutrient-yielding plants to grow all the necessary balance diets for the herds such as forage, hay, plane grass, fodder, and even legumes as the case may be. Such areas will of cause be properly irrigated with streams of canals like the fadama project for the animals to drink and be washed in as the case demands. The Federal, states, and local governments could easily help in effecting such arrangement in record time. In this manner, Fulani herdsmen in even southern states will have cattle ranches supported by governments within which they carry out their pastoral activities such as breeding, feeding, shearing, dairy extraction, and supplies etc. without needing to step out hundreds of miles in to different states and randomly destroying farmlands. Of cause this must be followed with proper legislation.

Secondly, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture must take up the responsibility of educating the Fulani herdsmen on non-peripatetic livestock techniques and how to grow and sustain or produce processed livestock feeds. The same applies to the irrigation system. Sourcing for livestock feeds is not such a big challenge but for the fact that the owners are not ready to spend a penny to buy common cheep feeds.

All herdsmen must be registered with states or Federal Ministry of Agriculture upon being trained satisfactorily on livestock handling and pastoral activities. This is very easy to achieve because the cattle being herded by these Fulani herdsmen actually belong to millionaires. It may surprise one to know that some of the herds belong in part or full to some southerners. Yes, the herds belong to notable money bags and high profile citizens in the country. Tagging such herds as a means of bringing the action of individual herdsmen to account will go a long way in taming the ferocious herdsmen and perishing the idea of impunity from their minds. Most of the killer herdsmen used for revenge missions are usually non Nigerians and in some cases are not even herdsmen themselves but mercenaries hired by the herdsmen to support them in attacking the affected communities. The come in mainly from Chad, Cameroun, and Niger. There is a thin blurred line between them and Boko Haram terrorists if not subset of the later in most cases.

There’s need to tag every herd and their designated herdsmen with proper codes carried out at random on at least 25% of each herds to make them identifiable and readily traceable to their owners by means of chips and other impregnated coding systems or transponders. Also, Farmers should be empowered with necessary means of calling for help or sending SOS messages to relevant security agencies for quick responses on emergencies. Using helicopters for occasional patrols over farmlands will not be a bad idea as well.

Fortunately, the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2014 under former president Goodluck Jonathan tried to revive the nomadic schools in the North. Continuing such programs with greater intensity and adequate funding by the present administration will be one of the best things to do as a long term measure.

For the time being, it will be good to demobilize the movement of herds and look for supplies of their feed stocks from nearby bushes or markets while the above mentioned steps are being implemented because right now the local farmers and affected communities in Nigeria are fed up and can no longer absorb the excesses of Fulani herdsmen. And these fightings between animal farmers and plant farmers could threaten Nigeria’s unity as well as generate food scarcity or hike in the prices of food crops as the middle belt which constitutes Nigeria’s food basket is the most affected by these rampaging herdsmen.

Engr. Christian Okwori who is also a farm owner writes in from Victoria Island, Lagos.  1498 Laide Bakare, off Sanusi Fafunwa, Victoria Island, Lagos.

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