In an effort to stop the incessant killings in the country, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu, has insisted that to curb the incessant cases of herdsmen and farmers clashes in Nigeria, everything must be done to stop the herdsmen from roaming around the country.
Shehu, while appearing on a Channels Television programme, Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, December 22, said taking such measures would stem the frequent clashes.
“We have to stop these herders from roaming and eating up crops all over the country. They drive their cattle into farmlands and they eat up crops and the farmers fight back and the killings follow. This country cannot continue in this way,” Shehu said.
Blaming the roaming of the herdsmen on the drying up of grazing lands in the northern parts of Nigeria, Shehu said:
“The encroachment by the desert leading to the drying up of a lot of grazing lands in the northern-most parts of the country have put pressure on the herders who are looking southwards for green grass so that their cattle will eat and also have water to drink.
“It’s a global climate change situation which is unfortunate, considering what has happened around Lake Chad basin itself drying to up about only ten per cent of its original size.”
Shehu commended governors in the north-central states and said they have done well by coming together to solve the problem of grazing.
