The Nigerian Fulani Herdsmen And The Grazing Reserve Bill: A defining moment of leadership. By Iyke Nwambie
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One of the most intriguing concepts that I learned in Leadership school was the concept of the “Defining Moment Of A Leader…” The defining moment of a leader is not a fancy, catchy phrase that entertains, it is not a set of choice words that appeals to fancy. Instead, it is that moment in the course of a leader’s stewardship when that leader engages his or her moral compass to do the needful. It has to do with that moment when a leader goes beyond the norm to do what is right. It has to do with that auspicious moment when a leader decides to harness the character, the courage, and the will to do the needful in order to avert the ugly. Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr. in his awesome book titled, “Defining Moments: When managers (and leaders) must choose between right and right,” submits that “the defining moment of a leader is not when that leader decides to choose between right and wrong…Instead, it is when that leader decides to choose between right and right.” (Badaracco, 1987).

History is replete with leaders who dared to stand for what they believed to be right: For example, Abraham Lincoln rose beyond the norm to declare the emancipation of slaves in America, Ronald Reagan stood strong when he called on Mr. Gorbachev to bring down the dividing walls between the eastern and the western hemispheres of Germany, Barrack Obama dared to put a stop to the dwindling job market in America through financial bailouts, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and others dared to envision a more united Africa when they muted the concept of Pan-Africanism, the legendary Chief Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria dared to believe that education must be free for all regardless of the cost considering how he had to struggle to raise money for his Law program in England, the late Dim Ojukwu chose to fight for the liberation of his people from what he considered a high-handed Federal Government, and Dr. Yakubu Gowon (whom Ojukwu fondly called Jack…” decided that his last name, Gowon must be converted to this acronym G.O.W.O.N (Go On With One Nigeria).

The import of the above instances is that the sole responsibility of leadership is decision-making. A leader takes a stand on issues so that the led might know where to stand. A leader who leads by proxy is a leader who may have decided to play little pranks on the led. A leader who leads by body language on serious issues, for the most part, creates room for being misrepresented by the led. A leader that keeps you guessing through the genuflections of calculated silences when clear-cut statements must be made is often perceived to have given a nod of tacit affirmation to the status quo.

Every leader has a defining moment or moments. And some of those defining moments may not have even appeared in the campaign speeches of that leader while running for office. President George W. Bush is a good example of that. His Presidency was judged principally on how he handled the wars that arose during his stewardship, President Goodluck Jonathan was judged concerning how persuasive his battles against Boko Haram was.

Thinking along this line, I remember the current President of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari whose appealing and glowing goal in coming to power was to fight the menace of corruption in Nigeria. It is my prayer that he would succeed at it. But permit me to submit that as much as President Buhari would love his defining moment to be viewed from that premise if he succeeds at it, it is also needful, audacious and prime to bring to his presidential attention, that if the legislators go ahead to allow the Grazing Reserve Bill that is currently before the Senate at the behest of the Presidency (having gone through the second reading) to sail through, his Presidency might as well be defined by it.

President Buhari is faced with a good example of when a leader has to decide between right and right and not necessarily between right and wrong. Deciding to choose right in the face of wrong is pretty easy to do even for a Toddler. But deciding to choose one right from another right (if that leader perceives it to be so) is one of the daunting tasks of leadership. Why so, you ask? It is the singular fact that either way a decision that is beyond the propensities of mere body language, presidential candor, and political taciturnity must be taken. And that decision is usually fuelled by the moral courage, character, and motives of the leader in question. For example, while the majority of Nigerians see the decision to curtail the mayhem of the Fulani herdsmen as a decision between right and wrong which ordinarily should have been easy for the Government to embark on, the President Buhari-led Federal Government sees it differently. Some have alluded to the fact that President Buhari has a moral burden to call out the nefarious acts of the Fulani herdsmen being a Fulani himself. Not just being a Fulani, but also running a Cattle Ranch business himself. And not just running a Cattle ranch business, but also being the Life Patron and a respected member of the association that fuels the pressure interests of the Fulani herdsmen.

The current Minister of Agriculture and an APC chieftain helped to tilt the focus of thinking Nigerian on how to interpret the body language of President Buhari in this matter with this quote:

“We are faced with cattle grazing challenge now and the conflicts. A lot of people are getting killed. It is my business to solve that problem. The President has told me so. I have done my survey and I have taken my decision that we have to grass up 50,000 hectares of land in the next six months across the northern belt before we move south. I’m bringing improved grass seeds. I will multiply it and I’m going to solve the problem of grazing. Whether critics like it or not, it’s my business” (Ogbeh, Vanguard editorial, 2016).

The core part of the Grazing Reserve Bill is the part that mandates every state to carve out a part and portion of their locales to the Fulani herdsmen as a Grazing field. And should they refuse, the Federal Government would exercise its right to apportion such land from the local community at a compensation. And if the compensation is not suiting to the affected community, such communities can only go to court if and only if the Attorney General of that state gives consent to it. The simple implication of this position by the Federal Government of Nigeria is that the Fulani Herdsmen have done no wrong in all the gory details that have assaulted the collective psyche of the average Nigerian in the past couple of months.

Time and space would not allow for the sordid kidnappings, bloodshed and massacres that have been meted out on the local community by the Fulani herdsmen going by their escapades from Benue to Ondo, to Edo, to Delta, to Taraba, to Plateau, to Enugu and much more recently in the farming community of Agatu in Benue state where over 300 lives were wasted, houses were burnt, and the President chose not to say a word about it…Not even a consoling message to the bereaved families.

So palpable was the “presidential silence” of President Buhari’s led Federal government on this issue that Media consultant, and public commentator, Dr. Victor Oladokun encapsulated it in these words on his Facebook profile page of March 3, 2016:

“What is happening my people? Where do we get our protection from? Is it not the time for the Federal Government to call these attacks what they are? Jihadists, Terrorism, Insurgency and pay the necessary attention to it?" (Oladokun, Facebook post, March 3, 2016).

In case, you think Dr. Oladokun was only raising a needless alarm, kindly be reminded that the Global Terrorism Index had already named Fulani herdsmen as the fourth deadliest terror group in the world.

Adding further impetus to the downside of a bill that should not be allowed to stand, former Aviation Minister and Presidential spokesman under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode alerts on the dangers of the bill with this warning:

“If that law is ever passed and implemented, two years from that time we will regret it deeply as a nation because it will result in nothing but conflict, chaos, and strife between the Fulani herdsmen and settlers on the one hand and the local indigenous population on the other. (Fani-Kayode, Premium Times, 2016).”

Azuka Onwuka in his weekly column in the Punch newspaper of April 19, 2016, while writing along this line berated the action of FG with these words:

“Rather than take some measures to curb their attacks, the government looks the other way and decides that the best way to deal with them is to pacify them by giving them other people’s land” (Onwuka, Punch Newspapers, April 19, 2016).

So, synthesizing all the above cerebral, cautious, and audacious measures that have been voiced out by the above quoted writers, the Nigerian Federal Government ably led by President Buhari must jettison the Grazing Reserve Bill, and choose the better right over the lesser right by reminding the Fulani herdsmen that what they are into is their own personal business which fetches them a personal profit annually. Not only that, they (Fulani herdsmen) should use part of their profits to buy grazing fields after properly negotiating on agreeable terms with the landowners in any local community that decides to do business with them.

That decision would be a fair game. It will be a decision that would have enabled the President to choose between right and right. That is, uphold the right of the Fulani herdsmen to do their legitimate business as well as preserve the right of the local community to live peacefully on their land. If the FG decides, however, to follow through on the current strategy of wanting to build Grazing fields at the expense of the Government, one begins to wonder at the next line of business people who would want a government bailout after intimidating other Nigerians of their rightful locations. If the FG decides to push for a law that would attempt to hijack community lands for Fulani herdsmen who are doing their business, it will be nothing short of twisting the arms of a people on their own land, at the expense of the Federal purse for a project that is not a public venture. That would certainly serve as a veritable defining moment for Nigeria. And the consequences may not be too good. May God bless Nigeria.

Iyke Nwambie.

Dr. Iyke Nwambie is a leadership consulant based in Miami, Florida.

http://leadershipplatform.org/2016/04/20/the-nigerian-fulani-herdsmen-and-the-grazing-reserve-bill-a-defining-moment-of-leadership-by-iyke-nwambie/

From the way things are going, I thinks if this grazing reserve bill is not properly handled it may lead to serious problem all over the country

I just hope the national assembly will do the needful concerning this bill, by not passing it. otherwise it might throw this country into anarchy