- Stakeholders lament displacement of farmers by herdsmen, land grabbers
Stakeholders have emphasized the need for the Osun State Government to come to the aid of farmers and other residents in rural communities of the state especially in the areas of security, water, agriculture and health.
They revealed that several rural communities are without clean drinking water, security posts and good roads, expressing fear that continuous conflicts between farmers and herders may cause unimaginable food insecurity in the state.
Addressing the state governor, Ademola Adeleke during a courtesy visit he paid to the governor recently, the bishop, Catholic Diocese of Osogbo, Most Rev John Oyejola, revealed that rural dwellers and animals struggle to drink water from nearly dried streams in over 40 grassroots areas of the state owing to lack of modern sources of water.
This revelation is coming few months after the state government announced that it constructed boreholes in 332 wards in Osun.
Oyejola bemoaned the deplorable roads in some other communities that host farm settlements, saying lack of access roads in these areas coupled with absence of security posts would discourage farmers from producing food for the people.
He called on Governor Adeleke to focus more on grassroots development by providing them with water, security, good roads and functional health facilities.
In order to tackle incessant clashes between rural people, especially farmers and herdsmen who struggle for water at the same streams on a daily basis, Bishop Oyejola explained that the church constructed some boreholes for the use of some communities, thus calling on Adeleke to further assist the locals.
Stressing the need for more attention to be focused on peace and security in the local areas of Osun, the clergyman told Adeleke, “Your Excellency, we commend the effort and determination of your government in the sustenance of relative peace in our state considering the security crisis raging in other parts of the country.
“Worthy of mention also is your cordial and respectful disposition towards everyone, your warm embrace of people of all religious creeds and your friendliness towards leaders of varying political ideologies. Since it is only in an atmosphere of peace and security that human development can truly be realised, we encourage you to give it all it will take and let all who directly work with you on this be sincerely committed to the task of peace.
“On this note, we call on Your Excellency to pay special vigilance to the situation of the grassroot communities. Our statistics has indicated, for instance, that there are around 42 communities in Osun State that do not have security agencies offices or posts.
Yet, the access roads for security response in those communities are in very bad shape. We realise that the government cannot fix everything in one day. We therefore call on your government to be proactive in initiatives that encourage peaceful co-existence and community-based solidarity against aggressors.”
Mentioning a few of the initiatives the church has taken and where the government can come in, Oyejola said, “Between 2015 and now, we have deployed a lot of financial resources to understand the dynamics of the farmer/herder conflicts in Osun. The major causes are water, grazing/farmland and animal mortality. We have identified, even without yet completing our assessment, over 57 communities that are prone to conflicts between herders and farmers due to water problems.”
According to him, “During the dry season, in many of these communities, people and animals struggle for drinking water from nearly dried streams, and this causes conflict. We sank boreholes in 10 communities and constructed 600-litre cattle drinking troughs directly connected to water storage tanks for cattle to ensure that cattle are not deemed to create nuisance in places where people get water for household use.
“In the execution of water provision plans of your government, we ask that you put such communities into consideration. Water, beyond its nutritional value, would promote peace in such communities. We have also introduced free veterinary services in over 30 communities which have dissolved the myths and suspicion of animal poisoning by neighbours.
“In addition, we have facilitated the setting up of interreligious dialogues and ecumenical relations which have ensured religious tolerance and peaceful co-existence of all in this state.”
On health, he said, “While we applaud the efforts of the government in the renovation of many primary healthcare centres in grassroots communities, we appeal to your government to provide sustainable power and water sources for them and as well deploy good manpower to them. In most cases, it is the primary healthcare centres that are within or close to the state capital that one finds required facilities. These are mostly missing in hard-to-reach communities where they are needed by the aged, mothers and children.
“We also appeal for strong and close supervision and upgrading of the Osun health insurance scheme with terms and conditions that make healthcare accessible and available to the most vulnerable,” Oyejola added.
The church’s non-governmental organization, Justice Development and Peace Makers Centre identified activities of miners, land grabbers and herdsmen attacks as threats to security, peace, development and food security of Osun.
In an interview with The Point, Mrs. Morenike Onaolapo, the Head of Programmes for the Rural Development Programmes of the JDPMC, listed some of the communities that are in dire need of water and those that the organization has been able to dig boreholes for.
She said, “Our plan is to dig 14 boreholes and we have dug 12. We have dug in Oogi, we have one in Adejuwon community of Ede North, we have in Alaro community in Egbedore, we have in Aato community under Ejigbo. We also have boreholes in Araromi Ejigbo, under Ejigbo, we have in Iragberi, in Iragberi pastoralist community. In this Iragberi, there is one Bororo community that needs water but the borehole has not been given. We have a borehole in Olomiero, in Iragberi, we also have in Idi Mangoro towards Soungbe; we have in Igbajo, Oke-Osun, we have in Alagbede in Ifedayo, towards Oke-Ila. We live in Imuleke settlement. We have in Kajola-Ijesa, we have in Alapata, close to Ijabe.”
“We still have several communities that are in dire need of water. We have both at farmers’ level and at pastoralists’ communities’ level. These areas are yet to be covered. For some farmers, we are in Abalode, Abalota, very close to Igbajo, Boluwaduro Local Government. For instance, in the Faforiji community, they will need three boreholes because they don’t have water. Some of the farmers that are rearing animals like pig farming are seriously facing problems. Rearing animals becomes a problem and it has impacts on their own livelihood. You know the health implications of drinking bad water. We have water challenge in Kajola Alaago, Ajumobi and Romote areas,” she stated.
Onaolapo also confirmed that the eight farm settlements in Osun State don’t have security and advocated for deployment of Agro rangers unit of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to protect the farms and their inhabitants from herders and land grabbers’ attacks.
“Government should make sure that in all the local government areas where food is coming from, there should be security posts. The security personnel that will stay in these locations should be warned not to extort community members because sometimes, they create security posts and police will be using the opportunity to extort the rural community members including farmers. Once things are done, farmers who are feeding the people will be protected.
“We have recorded a lot of instances whereby, because of the current high cost of cocoa, hoodlums now invade people’s farms and start harvesting their cocoas. This is because there is no security and farmers are afraid to work on their farms. Due to the hardship in cities, hoodlums storm local communities to steal from farmers.
“So, the government needs to work on these areas to make sure that security is mounted and we will prefer civil defence to police,” the development worker noted.
Highlighting other challenges farmers face, many farmers have been displaced and their farmlands grabbed without compensation. She urged the government to prevent illegal miners from sabotaging efforts of farmers at feeding the people, hinting that several farmlands have been damaged by miners in the state.
“We want the government to be conscious of some counter-factors that may affect chances of food security in the state. At Idi-Odan community of Ila, a few years ago, lands belonging to farmers were converted to police college and many of these farmers have not been compensated.
“A lot of famers have been displaced and their lands have been converted to estate. This is encouraging food shortage and inflation.
Government should know that they can’t be promoting food security and destroying cocoa beds and arable lands. Lands that could serve as irrigation farming have been damaged by miners in Osun. All these are key things we have discovered and we want the government to collaborate with NGOs like us to identify the pressing needs of local dwellers and farmers,” she said.
Meanwhile, reacting to Bishop Oyejola’s remarks, Governor Adeleke said he has noted the challenges facing rural communities and assured that steps would be taken to address them, saying that his government has invested greatly on healthcare, water and road construction especially in the rural areas.