From Farmers-Herders to Miners-Herders

Source: Seaarts

Towards the end of the third quarter of 2009, there was a problem in Wase Local Government Area of Plateau State. The administration of Jonah Jang, Governor of Plateau State at the time,   was evacuating some herdsmen who were immigrating to Plateau in large numbers.

In the previous couple of years, Plateau has recorded some of the most deadly conflicts that pitched native Plateau tribes on one hand and the settler Hausa-Fulani tribes on the other. The Jang administration, whose regime was marred by these conflicts, was afraid that immigration of these herdsmen, some of whom are said to have come from as far as Mali would only complicate matters.

Despite the effort of the Jang administration to move these herders back to where they came from, it did not work. The herders chose a strategy.  When they returned, it was deadly. Armed with some of the most deadly weapons, they would visit innocent native villages in the dark of nights and kill as much as they can. Whoever survives is compelled to move out, having no assurance that he will be protected in future. The climax was the death of two legislators, one a senator, the other a member of the Plateau State House of Assembly in 2012. This was the start of what was dubbed the Farmers-Herders Conflict.

The phrase wasn’t fair to the farmers. It suggested there was a conflict between the two sides, when actually the farmers were helpless and unarmed people who never knew where the herders were coming from let alone attempt to attack them in retaliation. It was a case of a lion and a gazelle, a case of a deadly bully and the weak.

The herders, seeing that nothing was done by the authorities to deter them, started casting their murderous nets to cover wider regions such that people who had argued in their support became their worst victims, as the killing fields broaden to include Benue, Kaduna, Zamfara  and Niger provinces.  In Plateau State alone, the attacks had displaced close to a hundred villages as at the year 2019.

They herders were initially interested in grazing lands. Now, they have become more daring and more ambitious, driving people away from villages that are rich in minerals, succour to the villagers who find themselves living arm and leg in contemporary Nigeria. In Zamfara and Niger States, the conflicts is said to be fuelled by gold deposits underneath the affected villages. In Plateau State, considered the nucleus of solid mineral mining in Nigeria, the story is the same. In Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, Wase, Kanam and Jos South, all of which are rich in a diversity of mineral deposits, the attackers wait until your mining shafts reach the depth of the targeted deposits before they launch attacks, displacing everyone and returning to scoop the deposits.

The attacks, rather than slowing down, are becoming more vigorous, accentuating the weaknesses or nonchalance of authorities. It has gone beyond just grazing farms to minerals and wealth at large. Everything gets messier.

Suicidal Mistakes of Power Distribution Companies

Substandard Power Grid. Source: Seaart.

I connected to the national grid in 2014. I was on estimated billing. Eventually, my meter came in 2017. I noticed I needed 32 units of electricity every month. I kept adding the gadgets I needed to live a cosy life. My consumption rose to about 90 units a month. With the current categorized billing tariff that puts me on Band A, I have to pay about twenty thousand naira every month.  I am law-abiding. So, I have accepted it, despite the tariff digging a huge hole in my pocket.

Now, though, I coil and boil when I see neighbours using all manner of gadgets and paying five times less than I pay because they are on estimated billings. The feeling I get is that I am paying for the neighbours who don’t have meters. This is the first suicidal mistake of the power distribution companies.

When power consumers started getting categorized into bands so that consumers on Band A pay a thousand naira for just 4.4 units of electricity, it was on the condition that the distribution companies supply at least 20 hours of electricity a day. Should the distribution company fail to live up to the contract, there should be an automatic reversal to the old status. The distribution companies lived up to the agreement for a couple of months. Then the national grid started experiencing failures lasting for weeks. Yet, there hasn’t been any reversal of the tariff as was agreed. The failure to live up to terms of an agreement is suicidal mistake number two.

It is the duty of power distribution companies to take electric power to communities –they are the distribution companies. That is never done. Power consumers by poles and cables and still pay staff of power distribution companies for installations. It also means that the companies are not interested in improving on their operations. This is suicidal mistake number three.

Despite the huge profits power distribution companies declare (over a trillion naira by the end of 2023), they are still not interested in improving working conditions for their staff. The offices look very filthy and unbefitting for humans. Salaries are still extremely poor with the workers not being able to pay bills. The result is that the staff have joined hands with defrauded consumers and directives from the top don’t ever sink down to the bottom where it is intended. The consumers prefer to pay field staff so they get soft landings. Refusing to improve staff welfare in the midst of plenty is the most suicidal mistake of the distribution companies.

Proverb 15 verse 27 says: he that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house.