Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu is set to launch a scheme to address the herder assimilation into Nigeria, the solution named “ Fulaku” is expected to also address the grievances and the social exclusion of the Fulani herders in North West Nigeria.
This was disclosed in a statement by Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettimma on Sunday while interacting with journalists in Kano.
Nigeria’s ex-President Muhammadu Buhari started the process of resolving Herder attacks on Farmers, with multiple schemes, including the Livestock Transformation Plan and the Livestock Breed Improvement Scheme.
Banditry and Security challenges
Vice-President Kashim Shettima in the press briefing restated the commitment of the Bola Tinubu’s administration to address banditry and security challenges bedeviling the North-West region.
.He said the president had concluded plans to provide a lasting solution to security challenges bedevilling the region and will soon unveil a new strategy to tackle banditry and killings in the region, adding that the measure would involve military and non-military solutions to the crisis.
Fulaku solution
Shettima also noted that the crisis in the region was associated with poverty and social exclusion, stressing that the president is determined to address it with a solution, he said:
- “President Bola Tinubu in the next couple of weeks will unveil the ‘Fulaku’ solution which will address the grievances and the social exclusion of our Fulani cousins in the North West.
- “He will also address the root causes of banditry and insurgency in the region to which a solution will be unveiled soon.
- “The president is determined to redefine the meaning and concept of modern governance.
- “And the crises we have in the North-West further associated with poverty and social exclusion is something that the president is determined to confront.
- “In the coming weeks, he is going to unveil the solution.
- “Unless we want to engage in an endless war of attrition, there cannot be a military solution to the crisis in the North-West, there has to be a kinetic and non-kinetic solution,”.
In a separate statement by Mr Olusola Abiola, the Director of Information, Office of the Vice President, they added that the scheme will also address insurgency and poverty, especially in the Northern region.
- “The solution which will address the grievances and social exclusion of our Fulbe cousins in the Northwest and also towards addressing the root causes of all the banditry and insurgency in the nation,” he said.
If poverty and social exclusion are really the root causes then perhaps our “cousins” should start with NOT having 20+ kids each, and sending those they already have to school!
That sounds pretty paternalistic to me.
If you’re truly serious about reducing family sizes, we need to make sure that affordable birth control solutions are available to young women in the North. This way, they can take control of their family planning and make their own decisions about when they want to start a family.