Timawus Mathias On Herders/Farmers Crisis
Tackling the worsening herder/farmer conflict Nothing has occupied my mind and body through this week as much as the thought of finding a solution to the heightening herder/farmer conflict in Nigeria. I believe in peaceful resolution of conflict. I abhor human suffering. It is disheartening that when it is clearly more beneficial to live in peace, bloody clashes have escalated. As I write this column, the entire Bachama land with all its water and grazing plains is without grazing cattle. Thirsty herds surround the area with frustrated herders, distraught at the negative turn of events. The peace to return to in safety of man and livestock has been destroyed. The elite who promoted this bloody disharmony are in the big cities, sleeping in cozy hotels and talking tough on radio and TV, unmindful of the peril of the ordinary herdsman. I have interacted with simple folks at the personal level. There is no hatred of one another, they all admit and indeed ask what went wrong that people wh...