The Nigeria Union of Journalists, (NUJ), Yobe Council has embarked on a sensitization campaign to the Bade Emirate Council to promote peaceful coexistence especially among farmers and herders in the area.
Rajab Mohammed, Chairman of the Council while addressing critical stakeholders in the area said the union is bitter about the lingering farmer-herder clashes within Jakusko axis under Base emirate council.
These clashes have led to wanton destruction of lives and property worth millions of naira.
“This informed our decision to embark on peace advocacy and sensitization to areas prone to clashes. We will do our best to set a peace agenda”, he said.
He said the Union is collaborating with the State Emergency Management Agency, (SEMA), on the need to provide succour for the affected victims.
In his remarks, the Secretary NUJ Yobe Council, Alhassan Sule Mamudo said journalists in the state were in the area to dialogue with the community leaders on the menace of farmers and herders’ disagreements.
“We have identified this area as having continued clashes between farmers and herders over grazing. We want to know the actual cause and how to amicably resolve it. We are so much concerned about the condition of our people and want peace to prevail”, he stressed.
The District Head of Gwio, Yerima Abba Kyari while commenting on the development appreciated the effort of members of the pen profession for keying into the agenda of seeing the end of this decades long social problem in the area.
The community leader maintained that farmers and herders clashes are not new in the area adding that, “we are always doing our best to ensure peace prevails so that the lingering situation could be overcome”.
We do advise farmers to immediately pack away their farm produce after harvest, so that the animals can freely graze, but sometimes the herders from Zamfara State usually come without notice and would allow their livestock graze on people’s farm overnight, hence leading to conflicts”.
On his part also, the District Head of Zabudum, Abubakar Sale Sulayman stated that, “we need to promote peaceful coexistence through instruments of the traditional institutions. Traditional rulers should be allowed to discharge their social responsibilities instead of using law enforcement agencies in dispute resolution”.
He appealed to the government to assist in safeguarding the grazing routes as one of the solutions to the problem.
It is the prayer of all stakeholders that the issue of farmer-herders clash will soon be a thing of the past in the area and by extension the country in general.
