TheFederal Government has earmarked N5.30 billion on national grazing
reserve development in the 2018 budget which is being considered by the
National Assembly.
The budget is coming at a time when the
country is grappling with herdsmen and farmers clashes, leaving scores
of people dead, homeless, especially in Benue, Taraba and Ekiti states.
Meanwhile, the 19 northern states and
Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter of the Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN) has kicked against the Federal Government’s plan to
establish cattle colonies for Fulani herdsmen across the country.
CAN noted that if government goes ahead
with the plan, it means that government knows the killers in Benue and
other parts of the country.
However, speaking in an interview with
Daily Sun, Public Relations Officer of northern CAN, Reverend Joseph
Hayab said provision of cattle colony was like putting the horse before
the cart.
“The issue of cattle colony will not
address the killings because why are those people killing? If you
provide them with cattle colony, will they stop the killing? The
killings will not stop because you have not removed evil from the heart
of a man and you are providing him with colony.
“Now, whose land are you going to take
and provide the colony? It is when the right thing is done that the
people can now sit down and talk, dialogue before we even begin to talk
of providing or not providing colony.
“Government is even contradicting itself
by saying those killing the people are not Fulani, so, if they are not
Fulani, who, then, are you providing the cattle colony for?
“And, if the killers are foreigners, as some people are claiming, we should then give our land to criminals to stop killing us?
“I think we are seeing criminals who have
taken advantage of the weakness of our security agencies and nobody is
addressing it and government is telling us that criminals must be given
colony to feed cattle.
“I think there is a mix-up here, because
if you say you are providing colony for them, who are they? You know
them, therefore, you must arrest them first because they are criminals…
“Let me tell you, I was in the team of
CAN officials who visited Benue State, about two weeks ago. We visited
many places in the state, what we saw was so sad.
“The killings must stop and it is only government that has all the machineries to stop the killings.
“Government must stop the killings and
call for dialogue. You can imagine a man who has lost father, mother,
brothers, sister, farms, cows and everything you can think of; what form
of dialogue or discussion are you going to hold with him while he is in
pains and killing has not stopped?
“We must put the government to task; to
stop this killing and not allow it to use divide and rule to set
Nigerians against themselves.
“So, provision of colony is a wrong step
that cannot address the real issue because you don’t empower criminals
to overpower you in your own land.
“We are not happy because our people can no longer go to the church, go to the farm, go to the market, and so on and so forth.
“We are calling on the federal governmentto end the killings in the region.”