Ask Atiku Abubakar — Official Citizen Engagement Platform

How will you deal with people who carry weapons and attack communities, regardless of whether they are farmers or herders?

My policy treats violent crimes as criminal acts, full stop, regardless of ethnicity. It doesn't matter if the attacker claims to be a farmer or a herder - the law applies the same way to anyone who takes up weapons against a community.

To back this up, I will assign intelligence work to federal agencies, operational policing to states, and early-warning dispute resolution to community authorities. On the ground, this means deploying well-equipped Agro-Rangers and using aerial drone surveillance along agricultural corridors to detect and neutralize threats to farmers and rural communities. Where attacks have become entrenched, as in places like Zamfara and Borno, I am advocating for constitutional restructuring to allow State and Local Community Policing, alongside expanded security force recruitment and intelligence-driven counter-insurgency operations.

Where this comes from

p. 3 Introduction Atiku Abubakar: Answers to questions from the public 2026-10-02 ›
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.
p. 5 Introduction Atiku Abubakar: Answers to questions from the public 2026-10-02 ›
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.
p. 5 Introduction Atiku Abubakar: Answers to questions from the public 2026-10-02 ›
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.
Post on X Post by @atiku on X · https://x.com/atiku/status/1934579418971709875 2025-06-16 ›
To unleash force on grieving, defenseless citizens is not governance, it is cruelty. It is a betrayal of the sacred duty of leadership. What kind of government meets a cry for safety with the barrel of a gun and a canister of gas? The silence, the indifference, the lack of urgency, it is all damning. It speaks to a deeper rot in the conscience of leadership, a frightening normalisation of violence against the very people they swore to protect. This is a call to conscience to every leader at both the federal and state levels: stop turning a blind eye while Benue drowns in blood. Stop offering condolences and start offering solutions. Work with security agencies, deploy resources, and craft a security architecture that prioritizes human lives over political optics. Benue is not alone. From Plateau to Zamfara, Kaduna to Taraba; the cries are the same. Nigerians are bleeding and begging to be heard.
Post on X Post by @atiku on X · https://x.com/atiku/status/1970917595491545486 2025-09-24 ›
Tuesday's attack on Wagga Mongono community in the Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State, in which suspected insurgents killed at least four people, injured several others, and set homes, shops, and a church on fire, is a painful reminder of the pervasive insecurity in Nigeria. Our people are certainly tired of government’s empty claims of improvements in security. Indeed, Nigerians would love to see this government exert pressure on insecurity much as they do on revenue generation. We cannot continue to lose our productive population to sundry criminalities and yet make bogus claims about reaching revenue targets, as though the lives of the workforce that produces the revenue don’t matter. Many Nigerians remain vulnerable to violent attacks. The tragedy in Wagga Mongono illustrates that the situation is far from being under control, and our people continue to live in fear and displacement, with no certain hope of solution at sight.
p. 29 3.1. POLICE REFORM (UNDER SECURITY) Party Manifesto 2027-2031 2026-10-05 ›
● Reduce the incentives for kidnapping by making the system riskier, less profitable, and easier to dismantle ● Disrupt financial flows that enable kidnapping, including ransom payments, laundering channels, and support networks ● Deploy intelligence and financial tracking systems to identify, monitor, and shut down kidnapping operations ● Introduce strict legal and financial consequences for individuals and entities that facilitate or profit from ransom systems 11.Make farming safe again. Recognizing that insecurity on farms directly drives food shortages and rising prices, we will treat farmer security as a core pillar of food policy Details: ● Secure farming communities and agricultural corridors through targeted security deployments ● Establish protected farming zones in high-risk areas to enable safe cultivation and harvest ● Integrate security planning into agricultural policy, linking farm protection to food supply stability ● Support early warning and rapid response systems for rural communities facing threats ● Reduce food inflation by ensuring farmers can produce, harvest, and transport goods without disruption
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