The Hard Truth About 'RUGA' Settlement Controversy in Nigeria- Uche Okeke

RUGA Settlement in Nigeria is a cloack for Expansionism and Conquest, people should beware. "More than that, the concern is that RUGA will make the Fulani the only ethnic group in the country to have large territories of land in every state to call their own. In effect, they will become indigenes in every state, that is what is meant by the ethnic agenda, the Fulanisation of Nigeria"-Minabere Ibelema.  Today people love their freedoms and autonomy, they don't want to be colonised, enslaved or killed in their own country. Recent policy initiative by Nigeria government to address the nationwide killings by Fulani herdsmen across the country has been met with stiff opposition and rejection in various states of the country. The reasons are not far-fetched, safety and security remains a major policy consideration in development intervention projects, secondly the federal government must respect shared government and the rights of indigeneous people, shared values and shared responsibilities as recognised by the constitution.  The truth is we must leverage modernity to achieve inclusive growth instead of allowing extremists to win. Everything history tells us about demagoguery and totalitarian barbarism is true as the controversy of the RUGA policy has just shown. Meat is a big business which requires leveraging innovation to achieve inclusive growth rather than violence and destabilisation. Today Nigeria is poverty capital of the world with mass unemployment. Ranching could provide a great opportunity to reduce unemployment by embracing innovative public-private-partnership for development. State Governments should mobilise widely available resources to set up ranching in their various states to enable unemployed youths to exploit cattle business instead of unnecessary controversy and politicisation by extremists seeking a return of the society to the primitive state. According to the World Economic Forum, analysis by A.T Kearney shows that the "global meat market was worth $1000 Billion dollars in 2018 and is set to grow". This is a huge opportunity to unlock inclusive opportunities instead of providing a platform for radical extremists to cause havoc to the society. We should be very worried about how to reduce astronimical unemployment and poverty which creates insecurity and instability not politicising important national policy to favour one particular homogeneous group over others. We must be mindful of extremists who are not bothered about liberal values, economic development and inclusive growth, rather violence and unending poverty to foster their barbaric ideologies on the society. Societies must do more to resist dangerous fundamentalist movements across the world still obessed with the fascist ideologies of the 20th century, colonization,  exploitation and domination especially in ethnically diverse societies that must leverage diversity to drive inclusive growth. Extremists thrive on crisis, violence, deepening poverty and stagnation to have their way. Ranching is a good practice that is adopted globally to grow cattle business, so it must not be a cause for violence. The practice is for people to pay for grazing not land-grabbing, destroying individual, community and commercial farms and assets which threatens human and food securtity. The world has changed and many societies are adopting global best practices to address societies complex problems not 'blood letting' by extremists who detest the rule of reason and good sense. Political power should seek to improve lives and change the society not to endanger it. Nigeria risks a slow descent into a civil conflict if the leadership allows extremists to exploit this policy by taking a particular world view. States that need RUGA should be encouraged to go for it whereas the states that oppose it be allowed to develop their own ranching business model which is open to everyone to rent thus maximizing the huge potentials of the cattle business. Cattle ranches is for rent not absolute right of occupation/ownership already addressed by the country's constitutional land laws, similarly it will enable only genuine business owners to harness the benefits it offers rather than providing cover for bandits , terrorists and extremists to achieve hidden objectives . Everyone is aware of the global tag of the herdsmen as the world's fourth largest and dangerous terror organization, so providing a blancket cover to settle them in our various communities is a very bad omen given abundant evidence of horriffic stories of their atrocities nationwide. Historically they are associated with religious intolerence, raiding, land grabbing, maiming, raping, kidnapping, killings, depopulating indigeneous communities and these unique features are what the country is currently witnessing, so it's a tragedy to suggest that they should be imposed on us to settle with the rest of the societies despite the risk they present. People are not looking for evidence because the evidence is laid bare for everyone to see, people are now living with the evidence. Societies need value not devastation, prosperity not destruction. In the words of Amy Chua; "when one group feels threatened , in danger of being extinguished by another predictable results follow", basically resistance. We must not allow unthinking extremists to ruin our world, destroy our country. Choas and crisis are inevitable outcome of offering irrational policies to support a particular world view especially in ethnic diverse societies where national identity is weak and the pull of ethnic identities are stronger. The country must be willing to rescue itself from tribal hatreds driven by demagogues seeking to replace shared values with sectarian and fundamentalist interests. Tribal division is a unique feature of Nigeria society so expecting it to vanish overnight is being dishonest and justifying the dysfunctional system. Capture and corruption can never build a stable and sustainable society.  The only option is embracing true federalism as events of more than five decades have shown, this calls for urgent national dialogue not despotism or using sentiments to replace facts. I like these words; How hypocritical this whole debate can be: "You took all our wealth now you have come to take our land". The time has come to recognise that Federalism promises Prosperity not Destruction, indigenous rights must be respected not violated. Let me conclude this writing with a remark by Governor Yesom Wike, the Executive Governor of Rivers State ; "Nobody can tell me what I should do. I represent Rivers State, so I have the right to speak the mind of my people. So if because i said I'm not going to participate in whatever they call..., I don't know the name. So you're not going to kill me because I can't participate. I can't participate because there's no land. The little we have, I have said we're going into Agriculture so if I give it out, where's the Agriculture we are going to do? But if they say that they want water, then we lay pipe from here and take our oil to other areas, is it not? They can also lay pipe in the Bonny Ocean and then take the water so that the cows can be drinking. Atleast, we have tried to contribute water. But any other thing, I'm not a party to it" Meanwhile;  Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, the spokesman of a Northern Nigeria Group seeking to impose the RUGA  Initiative across Nigeria's thirty-six states has described the suspension of the RUGA settlement by the Federal Government as "Ragging Madness" and warned the State Governors opposing the idea to 'give peace a chance'. In his words; "the federal government must act to halt and completely stop this raging madness within 30-days, failing to, we will most definitely be left with no option than to consider resorting to our decisive next line of action" The  leadership of the Igbo apex organisation, Ohaneze Ndigbo has raised alarm of impending 'land grabbing and ethnic genocide' and called on its citizens to embrace self-defence in their various places of  resident, and vowed to hold the Governors of the Nothern Nigeria states responsible for threats to lives and properties of their citizens resident in Northern Nigeria. The Governors of the Nothern Nigeria states have sued for peace in their various states. So sad that the promise of Federalism for Salvation and Prosperity has now become a bad omen. Indeed, if the purpose of Federalism is unity and continuity, regardless of inequity and injustice, then its a failed Federalism. Nigeria is already a failed state, the focus now is to avoid conflict status.  I totally agree with the Nigerian Tribune Editorial  position on this policy;  "The Federal government wants an ethnic enclave created in spaces belonging to other people by a strange fiat that is unknown to any democratic imagination", this should be a huge cause for concern. The RUGA settlement policy brings distrust, suspicion, and rivalry, similarly it has failed safety and security, trust and co-operation tests and tend to confirm the collective views of the various ethnic identities as a 'cloak for expansionism and conquest', what Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo described as 'Fulanisation and Islamisation' agenda of the Buhari-led APC government.  Obasanjo in a recent lecture on 'Herdsmen -Farmer crisis and management of diversity in Nigeria has this to say: "nothing is being done to address the Farmer-Herder crisis in Nigeria except that we want to create cattle colonies. Where would you want to create a colony in Nigeria? Is it in my own part of the country you want to make a colony? Who will give you land in his state to make a colony" There is clearly spelt out land act laws even in the dubious 1999 constitution, so why the sensless killings of innocent people in Nigeria in guise of Herdsmen-Farmer crisis and no accountability, no arrests , no persecution and the killings are going on daily, i think there is more to this. The future is people not cows. The future is new approach. The future is to think different. My View.

 Uche Okeke is the Founder of The LEAD Project Foundation. He lives in London.