The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, says there was need to look for ways of dousing the tension in the country, stressing that people are hungry and at the same time angry.The Sultan disclosed this in Abuja, at a national conference, yesterday on Livestock Reforms and Mitigation of Associated Conflicts organised by the Kano state government to proffer lasting solution to the farmers-herders’ clashes in the country.He stressed that the clashes between farmers and herders in Benue state has continued because all the suggestions made to the government were not implemented.Also, the Vice President of Islamic Development Bank, Dr. Mansur Muhtar, said various farmers-herders clashes that took place at various times across the country claimed the lives of four thousand people in seven years, with several thousand others sustaining injuries.He said while fatalities were initially confined to the North Central, they have since spread across the country, increasing pre-existing religious and ethnic tensions.Muhtar stressed that the northern parts of Nigeria have been the epicenter of the conflict, noting that the incident has been spreading to other regions.On the way forward, he said while ranching was very important, it was insufficient to effectively address the fundamental drivers of the farmer-herder crises, because of the complexity of the crises which calls for a multi-stakeholder intervention.
