RUGA: President Buhari Suspends Projects

RUGA: President Buhari Suspends Projects

President Muhammadu Buhari is said to have suspended the idea of establishing the Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) Settlements pending further notice, THISDAY claims.

This online news medium understands that this follows public outcry about the Ruga Settlement Projects.

While some states are willing to adopt the policy, some others are averse to it.

The presidency had constantly maintained the Ruga initiative is to eliminate the recurring herders and farmers conflict in Nigeria.

President Buhari, after consultations with stakeholders, has now resolved to step down the idea for an in-depth review and well-accepted approach to tackle the lingering farmers-herdsmen crisis.

The official announcement is expected to be made any moment from now.

This is excerpt from a REPORT OF THE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE ON GRAZING RESERVES & STOCK ROUTES DEVELOPMENT (set up 2014 by the GEJ Govt and chaired by then Agric Min, Akin Adesina)

There was also a NEC Ad-Hoc Committee on the same issue, comprising 6 Govs, set up July 2013#Thread pic.twitter.com/tHUM2dqJkY

— Tolu Ogunlesi, MON (@toluogunlesi) July 3, 2019

Since the Fourth Nigerian Republic’s founding in 1999, farmer-herder violence has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more.

It followed a trend in the increase of farmer-herder conflicts throughout much of the western Sahel, due to an expansion of agriculturist population and cultivated land at the expense of pasturelands; deteriorating environmental conditions, desertification and soil degradation; population growth; breakdown in traditional conflict resolution mechanisms of land and water disputes; and proliferation of small arms and crime in rural areas.

Insecurity and violence have led many populations to create self-defence forces and ethnic and tribal militias, which have engaged in further violence.

The majority of farmer-herder clashes have occurred between Muslim Fulani herdsmen and Christian farmers, exacerbating ethnoreligious hostilities.