NIGERIA : Tinubu breaks silence on farmer/herders clash

National Leader of the All Progressives Congress Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has called on the federal government to summon a meeting of state governors, senior security officials, herder and farmer representatives, along with traditional rulers and religious leaders to resolve the apparently out of control conflicts, in a statement he delivered Saturday.<br /><br />Read the full statement by the APC chieftain below:<br /><br />STATEMENT ON THE HERDER CRISIS<br /><br />The herder-farmer dispute has taken on acute and violent dimensions. It has cost too many innocent lives while destroying the property and livelihoods of many others.<br /><br />It has also aggravated ethnic sentiment and political tension. Despite the efforts of some of those in positions of high responsibility and public trust, the crisis has not significantly abated.<br /><br />Sadly, others who should know better have incited matters by tossing about hate-tainted statements that fall dangerously short of the leadership these people claim to provide.<br /><br />We all must get hold of our better selves to treat this matter with the sobriety it requires.<br /><br />Because of the violence that has ensued and the fretful consequences of such violence, if left unabated, we must move in unison but decisively to end the spiral of death and destruction.<br /><br />Only when the violence and the illogic of it are halted can logic and reason prevail. Until the violence is rolled back, we cannot resolve the deep problems that underlie this conflict.<br /><br />We will neither be able to uplift the farmer from his impoverished toil nor move the herder toward the historic transformation which he must make.<br /><br />Yet, as vital as security is to the resolution of this matter, we must realise security measures alone will not suffice. Enhanced security may be the necessary first step, but it cannot be the only step.<br /><br />Nor do we resolve this by hitching ourselves to emotional, one-dimensional answers. More to the point, those who cast this as exclusively