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• Why insecurity will persist in Benue, North-East • Rev Alia working hard to rebuild Benue after years of neglect by successive leaders
By Scholastica Hir
Prof. Daniel Saror , a renowned scholar and former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, was a two-term Senator and was one of those that resisted former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third-term bid.
In this concluding part of an interview that started last Sunday, Senator Saror explained why President Tinubu seems powerless in implementing local government autonomy. He also spoke on insecurity in Benue and other parts of Nigeria, among others.
Do you think the anti-open grazing law enacted by the past administration and adopted by the current governor is a panacea to the attacks by bandits in Benue?
The truth is that Nigeria has about 25 million cows. These cows are owned by Nigerians, mostly from the far North. They are either rich Muslims, rich governors, rich civil servants, rich army officers, and they hand them over to herdsmen to look after for them.
They don’t invest in how these cattle will graze. They just say wherever you see grass, eat. Then they take their money, buy AK-47 and give to these herdsmen. So, the herdsmen are operating at the behest of their owners, who are the oligarchs in Nigeria.
There’s no reason on earth why we should allow cattle to roam around everywhere. Even in the North, there is enough land to cultivate good grass to feed cattle. The National Livestock Production Centre in Zaria has all manner of grasses to feed cattle, but they are not interested. They only want to acquire land and impose their leadership as it happened in Southern Kaduna, as it happened in Wase. They are not interested in developing livestock.
Do you realise that no big hotel in Nigeria uses beef produced in Nigeria because there’s no quality to it? You can’t get quality beef out of cattle roaming about every day. In other countries, they feed them in air-conditioned facilities.
Buhari was the worst person in this regard. He had his own ranch in Daura for his cattle. But he was advocating grazing reserves, RUGA, and cattle colonies for people that don’t raise cattle. Here, we farm.
Even when Aper Aku had Ikyogen Cattle Ranch in Kwande Local Government Area, his idea was to produce quality beef and sell. Fulani will not go there. They want to acquire land everywhere and have their worship areas and culture imposed on another person’s land. I don’t like it.
What do you advise Governor Hyacinth Alia to do in the implementation of this anti-open grazing law?
You can’t implement a law if you don’t have the support of the law enforcement agencies. Even though under Governor Samuel Ortom the law was promulgated, his local government was still worse affected. The former Tor Tiv’s compound is still occupied by Fulani herdsmen since 2014.
In the Sankera axis, local bandits seem to have taken sway despite suffering herdsmen attacks. What is the cause of this?
I think it’s a long story. I have been in politics and I contested election in 1998, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011. The only credible election that was held was the one in 1999 in Sankera area because by 2003, myself and the late Chief JKN Waku had fallen out of favour with the government of the state. We were in PDP then. They wouldn’t let us contest under PDP. We went to UNPP and I went to ANPP.
But the election of 2003 was the beginning of political manipulation because young people were engineered to take ballot boxes and run away with them to designated places and thumbprint for the candidate that the government of the day wanted. I was a victim. But I managed to win that election in 2003 because people in Kwande and Jechira area supported me wholesomely.
By 2007, they had already settled the army and the youth with guns. I was still in politics. I was the candidate for governor in 2007. I couldn’t vote in my place even though there was a polling unit in my father’s house, I was supposed to be killed if I went. I didn’t vote. Even as a governorship candidate. I was a Senator then. All hell has broken loose in Sankera because the politicians have used this militia to intimidate voters, threaten them with their lives, to do what they want. That’s how it all started. Now, it has degenerated.
After Gana was killed and his people went over to the place, every politician wants to have his own militia that will help him win his election. That’s what they do. There has been no credible election in Sankera since 2003.
Even this one that Alia came like a tsunami, there were still such elements out there who were saying, look, you need us in Sankera. So, Sankera has become a terrible place. Sadly enough, these young people have been able to gather strength, because they have used money that they have got to buy more and more ammunition, and now they have recruited people over the place. They have compromised people in authority. Most of the chiefs are involved. Yes, Most of the chiefs in Sankera have connection with these militia groups. Not all, but almost.
So, where do you go from here? You are not likely to get a free election in Sankera. It will be the survivor of the fittest. So, Sankera is a bad case.
So, the insecurity, despite government efforts, do you see an end to it soon?
Much of the area is dominated by now criminal militia. Apart from Anyebe area and Adzege that I told you about earlier that it has been taken over by Fulani herdsmen, the locals no longer go to their farms there. That is in Logo LGA. I have been there. My pastor is from that area and we talked about it
But the bulk of insecurity now is being perpetrated by Tiv boys who connive with Fulani herdsmen who give them money and now they have found their own way of making money. They kidnap, they collect money and they use that money to even compromise security people who are sent there to keep peace.
Even in Kwande area, the Taraba side, these bandits come. Even when I was in the Senate, I know I went to Moon area across the river to the area. Now, Fulani herdsmen have taken over the whole of Moon
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One had thought that with the death of a Gana, the way he was killed, peace ought to have been restored in Sankera area.
He had a lot of boys. Layers of them. Today, I hear that even graduates have turned to militia in Sankera because it is a lucrative means of getting money. It’s very saddening indeed.
Is there any solution for the invasion of those marauders and the killings of innocent farmers? Recall that when the Ortom government came to power, he did amnesty during which locals were persuaded to surrender their arms…?
It was a bad mistake. That amnesty was a mistake. They took firearms from the people. Now, they don’t have anything to even defend themselves. No arrows. No cutlasses. If a police man sees you with a cutlass he will arrest you. But they see a Fulani man with AK-47, they don’t touch them. Government complicity.
Sometime ago, TY Danjuma called on the government to allow people to carry arms to defend themselves. Do you support that call?
I support him absolutely, Yeah, but unfortunately people don’t have anything again to save themselves.
Are you comfortable with the level of development in the country under President Tinubu’s administration?
No, I’m not. I don’t know but one of the biggest drawbacks is this issue of third tier of government in Nigeria, where the federation money is distributed to federal government, to states and to local governments. Unfortunately, since 1999, governors have cornered what is meant for local governments and they use it as they will. It’s not just here. It’s all over the country. Local governments don’t get what is due to them from the federation account. And that is what is responsible for the huge level of poverty in the rural areas. That’s why there is no development in the rural areas. They cannot even build a culvert. A local government chairman cannot build a culvert because all the money is controlled. But on paper, there are projects all over the place.
Currently, there is local government autonomy. The state government said they have given them autonomy. What’s your view on that?
No, autonomy is not there. Nobody’s implementing it. When Tinubu wanted to do it, the Governor’s Forum resisted him. They told him that if he is going to do that, be ready to campaign for yourself in all the 774 local government areas of Nigeria. So, Tinubu has backslid from that. Nobody implemented it. No local government is getting the money. There is still denial of money to local governments in this administration.
If Tinubu wins again, maybe he would have had nobody to fear and then he can do it. But for now, local government autonomy is a fiasco.
So, will you be able to give an assessment of Nigeria under the APC and PDP?
None of them has been good to the country. Take Benue State from 1999 till two years ago. Government didn’t create any new school anywhere. It did not build any industry anywhere. They did not build a new hospital in the rural area all these years. No rural roads. Very few, if any. So, Benue has not developed from 1999 till the years we are talking.
Alia came and he is building some roads and we can see it. But people are complaining. But you can imagine that everything that late Aper Aku had built then could generate employment; Benue Brewery, it generated employment, Otukpo Burnt Bricks, Rice Mill, Agricultural Development Corporation, all have been destroyed by the governors of the day They abused those places and killed them and they did not introduce a new one.
Even the tomato company that Akume said he was doing at Wannune, it’s moribund. The equipment that Adasu brought to do a juice factory at Katsina-Ala, they sold it away.
They have introduced nothing in 24 years. What kind of human beings are those?
The way the president is ruling, can his Renewed Hope Initiative bring back the glory of this country?
No, it will take many years to change this country. It’s not a one-day affair. The damage has been so deep. I say from 1999 till date, there has been no new industry in Benue State yet we are producing thousands of graduates every year. What are they supposed to do?
The state government is trying to resuscitate some of the industries. Like the Benue fruit juice industry. Now he is building other companies; Water, bread, nail factories among others. How do you rate what he is doing so far?
Yes, for the first 24 years of this century, what has happened? Zero. Nothing. We are seeing what Alia is doing, I advise he sustain the tempo.
Akume and Alia have been at loggerheads for some time, even though they keep claiming that they have no problem with each other. As an elder statesman, what’s your advice to Alia and Akume in the perceived face-off between them?
Well, Akume has been in political leadership in Benue State since 1999. What is his legacy? The Wannune tomato puree factory was started by him, it has never worked. The equipment that late Adasu brought for the juice factory at Katsina-Ala, he carted it away to Wannune using soldiers and those things have been sold off. So, the only road that he made that I know is the road from Wannune to Buruku. The one he started from Sankara to Sai is not completed up to this day. So, Akume has been the luckiest human being alive given the opportunities he had – eight years as governor, senator, minister, SGF. What is his own legacy? These are things that you can see. He has not told us why these things have failed and he is not associating with quality people that you can see. It’s all about consumption.
So, I’m not spokesman for Alia, but to say that he’s not trying at all is not true. But he may have a human relations problem with people, which I hope he can work on, and improve on. But if you go round Makurdi, you see construction work going on everywhere. These are things that could have been done long ago. There are some streets here that have been tarred twice on paper and there is evidence to show that this job was given to the man, he collected the money but didn’t do the job. The ones he had the money to do didn’t last for two years. So, I don’t want to get involved in the blame game. But Akume has a job as the SGF, let him face it. He will still be a leader. But to say that he must control everything that happens when he lacks the vision, it’s not fair for the people. That’s my own idea. I don’t envy him.
Lastly, you talked about human relations. Organizations are coming up to declare their willingness to support the governor. How would you advise the governor concerning such organisations?
If I have access to the governor, I will encourage him to embrace it, support it and use it to augment his own efforts. That’s what I will do. And I am still hopeful that somebody will get to him and talk to him and convince him because what we had from 1999 to 2024 is unsustainable. Everybody in Benue knew that the state is not where it is supposed to be, developmentally. We knew it. Somebody is responsible.
