By Gabriel Atumeyi
365Daily – National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has disclosed that though enhancing the security apparatus in the country is important, the measure alone cannot solve the near-perennial dispute between herders and farmers in parts of Nigeria.
According to the former Governor of Lagos State, the crisis between herdsmen and farmers in the country has an economic origin, and so, the solution must also take an economic dimension.
Tinubu made this known on Saturday, March 27, in Kaduna while delivering a speech as the chairman of the 2021 Sardauna Memorial Lecture held in honour of one of Nigeria’s founding fathers, the late Sir Ahmadu Bello.
Speaking on the topic, ‘Reduction of the Cost of Governance for Inclusive Growth and Youth Development in Northern Nigeria in a Post-COVID-19 Era’, he said, “Like I said in my recent statement on the pressing issue of the herder and farmer dispute, we must appreciate that martial security measures alone will not suffice.
“Problems that are essentially of an economic origin must also have an economic solution. Enhanced security may be the necessary first step, but it cannot be the only step. We cannot resolve this problem by holding on to one-dimensional answers.
“We must all be dispassionate in our search for solutions. These challenges are multi-faceted and so shall the solutions must be.
“The issue of insecurity, poverty, unemployment and extremism have many things to do with governance, over time. At bottom we must tackle our deep and widespread poverty.”
This is not the first time the APC Chieftain has advocated economic solution to the crisis.
In a statement on March 13, 2021, titled, ‘Tinubu’s Statement On The Herder Crisis’ he had proposed some solutions, saying both farmers and herders need economic “assistance to break the current cycle of violence and poverty”.