Ruga: You’ve Given Herdsmen Sense Of Impunity, Soyinka Slams FG

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has aired his opinion on the Federal Government’s proposed plan to set up pastoral settlements, otherwise known as Ruga settlements, for herdsmen in the country as a way to resolve the farmers-herders crisis in the country.

Soyinka warned on Tuesday that the proposed Ruga settlements can potentially unsettle the country if the federal and state governments should go ahead to establish them.

The poet, who spoke at the inauguration of the United Nations Solutions 17 SDG programme in Lagos, accused the government of giving herdsmen “a sense of impunity,”

Soyinka said there’s bound to be trouble in a country where priority has allegedly been given to cattle at the detriment of human life.

He stated, “Ruga is going to be an explosion if not handled with care. But why do we not take our policies from good models?

“This is not the way people and countries deal with issues of cattle. I travel everywhere. It has to be handled in a way that is logical, comprehensible to the environment. When a cow walks up to the window of my house in Abeokuta, a house which is located in a residential area, then there’s a problem.

“When a cow goes to Ijebu Ode and eats up their seedlings and so on and you expect people to be quiet? People have been killed in hundreds just because of the failure of leadership at a critical time.

“And the cattle herders have been given a sense of impunity. They kill without any compunction, they drive away the farmers who have been contributing to the food solutions in the country, the cattle eat their crops and then you come up with Ruga.

“I think that there is going to be trouble in this country if this Ruga thing is not handled imaginatively and with humanity as priority. Any country where cattle take priority over human life is definitely at an elementary stage,” he said.

Meanwhile, apart from Soyinka, others who have condemned the proposed plan to set up the Ruga settlement for herdsmen in the country, include Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere, the Middle Belt Forum and other groups.

But the Presidency, in reaction to the criticisms trailing the proposed pastoral settlements for herders, explained that the plan seeks to proffer “a permanent solution” to the unwanted clashes between farmers and herdsmen in the country.

““Ruga Settlement” that seeks to settle migrant pastoral families simply means rural settlement in which animal farmers, not just cattle herders, will be settled in an organized place with provision of necessary and adequate basic amenities such as schools, hospitals, road networks, vet clinics, markets and manufacturing entities that will process and add value to meats and animal products.

“Beneficiaries will include all persons in animal husbandry, not only Fulani herders,” President Muhammadu Buhari’s media aide, Mallam Garba Shehu, had explained in a recent statement.