PEACE IN WHEELCHAIR:
Affected communities open up on oddities and the future.
Denen Daniel
Recent times have come to witness lethal attacks on the peace enjoyed by communities designated as flashpoints in the crisis having herders and farmers as principal participants. Now, however, on how recent these attacks have come to receive, in lamentable way, the condemnation of both local and international peace lovers, does not totally agreed that there has never been a theatre of pockets of attacks and counterattacks in the designated areas for different reasons. In fact, if one thing like no other, has been a reason for unrest in the both upper and lower Benue valley, such has always been an extension of a long history of territorial disagreement on grazing rights and routes of passage by the marauding Herders and farmers. However, beginning from the new year eve of 2017, when worshippers were gruesomely murdered by suspected herders enroute home from the church, events have twisted and peace in return has taken flight and in its place, it has a feeble fugitive of peace languishing in a wheelchair.
According to Fauziya Shuaibu of Ugba town in Logo LGA of Benue state, when the foundations of peace were threatened, the life of dwellers in the affected communities became highly and unbearably restrictive. Everyone became apprehensive of the other and as such, it became as well as possible that all lives were cornered into tight places. She posited as this, “when the crisis had started, the first thing it did affect me was in the area of freedom of movement. Due to uncertainties of what and who was to come as an enemy, it became practically impossible to move about”. What she considered to be the pivotal cause of the crisis, she replied, “as it has always been the issue, the disagreement between herders and farmers on matters of grazing fields. The herders often, in the course of moving round with castle for grazing, trampled on crops as it is almost often the case and farmers are wont to accept this: the end is always these crises”.
From all intents and purposes, efforts accruing from all manners of peace initiatives have suffered cold reception by the crisis as it has become a perennial occurrence in the affected communities. For instance, in the words of Tyodzua Amoahaa, “ the constant clashes in the upper and lower Benue valley are those which have been in existence for quite a long time. This is not to say that ever since they had started, it has been just a matter of all watching from the sideline”. He added that for those who live in communities where these crises always are granted first point of entry in the state, they are just the right narrators of the atrocities unleashed on the citizens. “On much time, energy and resources which have come to bear of efforts of extinguishing the flames of the crisis, just a few can tell”, added Amoahaa.
Despite synergy of purpose between the governments; both federal, state and local in bids of arresting the ravaging tendencies brought about by the conflict between herders and farmers, it is will just be a matter of hasty conclusion should there be a reason a declare the return of peace in the affected communities. The difficulty towards this is stem from the palpable horrors of crisis still found among the people in the way of their daily lives and places. Shimenenge Akura, a mother of two whose hand was badly hacked away at a point difficult to differentiate from the shoulder lamented how the crisis have come assumed an almost insurmountable toll of hardship and psychological trauma on victims. “I am a widow, courtesy of this crises. When the crisis had received new momentum in 2012, my husband was mercilessly murdered by those suspected to have been herders. Left with two kids to feed and finding no other means of survival, I continued attending the farm on which my husband was murdered, only to receive this undesired treatment in 2016”. She tugged pitiably at the stump indicating that there was once a hand which could labour and provide for a home. Other receivers of the stings of the conflict, for instance, as in the response provided by Zaki Tyondo Vav of Baav community in Ukum LGA, present a situation of great concern as it captures how inflammable these crises have bear themselves on both parties.
From all indications, the crises have come to alter the entire co nfiguration of the communities and their inhabitants thereby representing a situation that calls for most urgent and well- calculated steps in order to aid the return of normalcy in the families and the social bubbling of the communities, “peace is all we need”, Jude Iorliam responded in scanty words when he obliged to respond to interview questions from The Transmitter correspondence. Jude’s response, was rather later found to be a desire occupying the front burner of members of TORKULA communities situated on the boundary line of Benue state and Nasarawa state. In another interview with Rev Lawrence Gbaa of Ugba, Logo LGA, he hammered on the social vices which now stand hand in hand and seem abundant amongst the people and communities who have received a much unprecedented dose of the horrors of the conflict, “sometimes and like it is most likely when trying to understand the impacts of a crisis, emphasis is laid on destructions that are material. But I want to differ substantially on this and insist that the psychological and social destruction which the crisis has sanctioned at the detriment of inhabitants”. The psychological level, there is a visible change in the psyche of the people: introverts have become sudden extroverts, drug abuse for the purpose of erasing certain horrible memories is causing more harm than good. Socially, the crisis as it has brought about rise in promiscuous behaviours among young girls and boys who, as a result of the crisis, no longer can afford education, has well as the inability of parents to provide needed care. Matters of prostitution, early marriages, cultism, youth delinquency, theft etc., are in a stupendous dominance over the social lives where there has been frequent repetition of the crises.
Whatever be the dimensions of the crisis and intentions of the major actors in the matter, expectations are high amongst inhabitants of the badly affected communities for a resuscitation of peace in the areas. Recent calls and actions from other friends of peace like PAD have continue to offer trusted platforms on which matters of peace restoration are discussed. In all damages, both give and take, emphasis has continued to be laid on dialogue as a the most sustainable approach towards any meaningful peace to be restored in the war- turned zones.
Benue state, and especially, the lower Benue valley, with its lush fields of vast pastures and crops has remained a theater of volatile potentials for conflicts between marauding Fulanis and farmers over matters of crop destructions occasioned by open grazing activities of cattle and cattle rustling. It will be recalled that on the 27th May, 2017, the state through a purposeful collaboration between the legislative, NGOs, faith-based organisations and the coalition of civil society organisations, enacted a law, that seeks amongst other achievements, to offer means of best internationally practiced animal husbandry and prohibition of open grazing. Since the birth of this law, the state has maintained an almost uncontested seat in front of victims of attacks and clashes common with tact of remonstration against laws by out- laws. Internal and external factors seeking measures of survival through cattle rearing and crop cultivation have been defeated through intentional manipulation by enemies of peace and the end results speaks low of both parties in the crisis. A fact remains that all parties as receivers of the effects of the crises yearn for a return of peace.
