The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has advised the Federal Government on ways to end the lingering crisis between herders and farmers in the country.
In a statement he personally signed on Saturday, he recommended a meeting at the instance of the federal, involving state governors, senior security officials, traditional rulers, and religious leaders, as well as representatives of herders and farmers.
Tinubu suggested that the purpose of such meeting should be to hammer out a set of working principles to resolve the crisis that has claimed many lives over the years.
He stated that the governors should convene follow-up meetings in their respective states to refine and add flesh to the universal principles by adjusting them to the particular circumstances of their states.
According to the former Lagos State governor, the herder-farmer dispute has taken on acute and violent dimensions and has cost too many innocent lives while destroying the property and livelihoods of many others.
He noted that the crisis has also aggravated ethnic sentiment and political tension and has yet to be significantly abated despite the efforts of some of those in positions of high responsibility and public trust.
The APC stressed the need for all to move in unison but decisively to end the spiral of death and destruction occasioned by the crisis.
He said that until this was achieved, it would neither be possible to uplift the farmer from his impoverished toil nor move the herder toward the historic transformation which he must make.
While noting the importance of security to the resolution of the matter, Tinubu believes enhanced security may be the necessary first step but not be the only step.
He stated that farmers have a right to farm their land unmolested while herders also have a right to raise their livestock without undue interference.