As a Fulani man, can you be trusted to be fair in a farmer-herder dispute?

Q6: Farmers produce food, but bad roads, poor market access and post-harvest losses mean produce either spoils or becomes expensive before reaching consumers. How will you solve this? Answer: My administration will prioritize farm-to-market rural feeder roads under public-private partnerships, establish regional agro-processing zones near farming clusters, and deploy off-grid solar cold-storage facilities to eliminate post-harvest spoilage. Q7: Fertilizer and other farming inputs are too expensive. How will you make farming more affordable and profitable for farmers? Answer: My policy deploys a direct e-wallet input delivery system to provide subsidized fertilizers, high-yield seeds, and pest protection directly to verified smallholders, bypassing middlemen while expanding low-interest agricultural loans via the Bank of Agriculture. Q8: Nigeria has large areas of agricultural land but still imports significant amounts of food. What is your plan for increasing domestic food production and food security? Answer: My strategy expands large-scale irrigation systems (dams and boreholes) for year-round farming, encourages commercial agriculture alongside smallholder development, and deploys Agro-Rangers to secure farmland against attacks.

Q21: Farmers and herders in my community are in conflict over crops, grazing and land. What is your plan for resolving these disputes fairly? Answer: The administration will establish Community Peace and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Committees comprising traditional leaders, farming representatives, and herder associations to resolve land and crop disputes transparently. Q22: Farmers are afraid to go to their farms because of armed attacks and destruction of crops. How will you protect farmers and rural communities? Answer: The policy deploys well-equipped Agro-Rangers and uses aerial drone surveillance along agricultural corridors to detect and neutralize security threats on farmlands. Q23: What is your policy on cattle grazing, grazing routes and livestock management so that herders can raise livestock without destroying farmers' crops? Answer: My plan transitions Nigeria from open grazing to modern livestock management and commercial ranching, offering designated livestock corridors, water points, and veterinary services within commercial feedlots.

Q24: How will you prevent farmer-herder disputes from becoming ethnic or religious conflicts, and what role should federal, state and community authorities play in resolving them? Answer: My policy enforces strict rule of law by treating violent crimes as criminal acts regardless of ethnicity, assigning intelligence to federal agencies, operational policing to states, and early- warning dispute resolution to community authorities. Q25: Kidnapping, terrorism and armed attacks have affected communities in places such as Zamfara, Borno and other parts of Nigeria for years. What will you do differently to make these communities safe? Answer: I am advocating for constitutional restructuring to allow State and Local Community Policing, expanding security force recruitment, deploying advanced satellite/drone surveillance, and conducting intelligence-driven counter-insurgency operations.

Beyond that, I find it morally wrong and repugnant for political actors to make broad-day incitements against a particular ethnic bloc in an attempt to intimidate them from voting for their choice candidate. It is not enough to talk about the promise of a free and fair election. The actions that we take prior to Election Day must have the integrity of a badge of honour. It is, therefore on this note, that I specifically call on security agencies in the country to ensure that politicians and their protégés submit to the rules of democratic fair-play across the country, especially in Lagos State, for the sake of decency and the promotion of peace and unity. -AA

Now, we entrust these facts to us all as citizens and as leaders of the institutions charged with interpreting our constitution. I should thank the lawyers both in Nigeria and in the United States, who have assisted us in bringing clarity and definitive answers to these issues that appear to have defied our institutions for nearly a quarter of a century. I also want to extend my gratitude to Nigerian citizens and friends of Nigeria both within and beyond the shores of our country for their patience as we have sought to find the facts and establish the truth. I wish to pay tribute to the late human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, who inspired us on this path of discovery. Now, he can truly rest in peace in the assurance that what he started about 23 years ago has come to fruition. Gani’s vindication today gives credence to the saying that no matter how fast a lie runs, the truth will someday overtake it.

Benue is the Food Basket of the Nation. Today, that basket is bleeding. Amnesty International reported that in just the first two years of the Tinubu administration, 6,896 people were killed in Benue State alone. Behind that figure are farmers who never returned from their farms, families driven from their ancestral homes, and communities emptied by fear. And when Benue cannot farm, Nigeria cannot eat cheaply. Every farmer forced off the land eventually shows up in the price of yam, rice, beans, vegetables and meat in the market. Insecurity is not only a security crisis; it is now a cost-of-living tax on every Nigerian family. I speak about this not only as a former Vice President, but as a farmer who has felt the consequences of insecurity. My farms have suffered from theft and disruption. I therefore understand, from personal experience, what insecurity does to production, livelihoods and ultimately the price of food in the market.