Falae blames north for herders crisis
News & Trends •
source63 chief olu falae secretary to the military government of ibrahim babangida has blamed the states in the north for the crisis caused by herdsmen in nigeria1 he spoke in an interview on a political programme that would be aired on monday1 the problem of the herdsmen has been exacerbated by the failure of many of the state governments in the north to take care of the needs of the herdsmen1 according to him the needs of the herdsmen were thoroughly met during the days of late sir ahmadu bello the then premier of the northern region and sardauna of sokoto1 the former minister of finance recalled that during the period there were grazing reserves while all kinds of facilities were provided for the herdsmen and their cattle1 he highlighted some of the factors responsible for the crisis to include the reduction in size of the lake chad1 falae a victim of the crisis was kidnapped for days by by herdsmen in september 2015 in akure the ondo state capital1 the police had confirmed that the abductors demanded a n100 million as ransom before they would release the elder statesman1 the 79-year-old national chairman of the social democratic party sdp explained that state governments in the region abandoned the policy introduced by former leaders to take care of herders1 while the police have yet to identify the perpetrators of the attack falae blamed the incident on malice and hatred by some individuals1 in further reaction to the herdsmen crisis he repeatedly called on the federal government to take proactive steps in addressing the matter1 the elder statesman asked the government to tackle the depletion of the lake chad erosion as well as the boko haram insurgency among other challenges1 over one million people are herdsmen who earn their livelihood from the lake can no longer do so1 added to that are those uprooted by boko haram and then desertification has been continuously eroding the arable land in nigeria1 when you put all these factors together you find a tremendous pressure on herdsmen and their cattle and the response should have come from the state governments and the federal government to take care of their needs because they are nigerians who are entitled to their livelihood falae added1 falae was secretary to government of the federation from january 1986 to december 19901 he was briefly the finance minister in 1990 and he ran for president in nigerias third and fourth republics1 the former sgf suffered another loss in january 2018 when his farm was razed in the south-western state1