We have read different reactions from various stakeholders on the recent decision by the Southern governors to ban open grazing in the region in favour of ranching.
We hereby state unambiguously that we wholeheartedly align with that decision. We also want to commend the governors for having the consciousness to realise, for the first time, the criticality of the times we are in.
In the last few years, particularly, since 2015, the Federal Government has done little or nothing about the invasion of Fulani herdsmen into the Southern part of the country.
The herders have continued to wreak havoc across the country. From Benue, Plateau and to some other states of the North Central, they have extended their activities to the southern part of the country, making life a living hell for the people.
When the herdsmen began to move into Enugu with lethal weapons, the state began to record huge losses. They kill, maim, rape and destroy people’s farms and appropriate same. They stretched into Ebonyi State, and have since continued to cause havoc of unimaginable proportion.
Today, their bloody signature is on Abia, Imo, Delta, Edo, Rivers and Akwa Ibom. They have since invaded Ondo, Oyo, Ekiti, and some other places in the South West zone.
All entreaties to the Federal Government to check the rampaging herdsmen have yielded no positive results, hence, the decision by the Southern governors to make the proclamation in the interest of their people.
At the meeting held on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, the governors had affirmed that the peoples of Southern Nigeria remain committed to the unity of Nigeria on the basis of justice, fairness, equity and oneness and peaceful co-existence between and among its peoples with a focus on the attainment of shared goals for economic development and prosperity.
They observed that “the incursion of armed herders, criminals and bandits into the Southern part of the country has presented a severe security challenge such that citizens are not able to live their normal lives, including pursuing various productive activities leading to a threat to food supply and general security.”
They noted, rightly also, that development and population growth has put pressure on available land and increased the prospects of conflict between migrating herders and local populations in the South. “Given this scenario, it becomes imperative to enforce the ban on open grazing in the South (including cattle movement to the South by foot),” they proclaimed.
For these forward-looking decisions, the governors and the entire region are being called names, a development that is very unfortunate in a supposedly presidential system where there are powers vested on governors as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to protect the interest of their people.
Apart from the decision on open grazing, there were also other issues that the governors deliberated on; it beats our imagination why attention has continued to focus only on one (issue)- ban on open grazing.
We recall that the governors’ decision aligned with the opinion earlier canvassed by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State. One wonders why it was interpreted differently just because it came from the South.
We are sad to point out that the statement issued Monday by the Presidency did not provide the needed solution; it rather exacerbated the issue, unfortunately.
Garba Shehu, senior special assistant (SSA) on Media and Publicity, said the President “expressed a strong resolve to address the conflicts of herders and farmers in a sustained and lasting manner that should lead to the emergence of a permanent solution to the frequent clashes between them, as well as the associated problem of the gun-wielding ‘killer herdsmen.’
“The President had approved a number of specific measures to bring a permanent end to the frequent skirmishes as recommended by Alhaji Sabo Nanono, the Minister of Agriculture in a report he submitted and the President signed off on it back in April, well before the actions of the Southern Governors Forum which attempts to place a ban on open grazing and other acts of politicking intended by its signatories to demonstrate their power.”
Edwin Clark, Ijaw national leader, pointedly said: “I think that’s a very bad statement, uncharitable, very unfortunate. The Constitution, which his Attorney-General is quoting from time to time, provides only for freedom of human beings, freedom of Nigerian citizens to move from place to place. Not freedom of cattle or goats or sheep that they can come into your house, they can do whatever think they like, no.”
“In all other parts of the world, like Malaysia, everywhere they have changed. We now have modern ranching. So that’s the position.”
Shehu also claimed in his statement that the decision of the governors was of “questionable legality,” but he did not see the decision of certain elements to forcefully take the ancestral lands of other people as anything illegal.
It would seem to us that the Presidency has not come to appreciate the existential danger that the herdsmen have become. The continued onslaught of herdsmen across the country, makes the ban on open grazing an issue that must be embraced by lovers of peace.
A few days ago, suspected herdsmen reportedly killed 16 persons in two separate attacks on Jos North and Riyom Local Government Areas of Plateau State.
We wonder the message Abuja passes each time it fails to punish self-confessed criminal elements. For instance, when Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State was attacked, a group accepted the responsibility for the attempted murder on a sitting governor, yet nothing happened to such elements.
The President ordered a shoot-on-sight on anyone seen carrying firearms illegally, yet, herdsmen are all over the place bearing AK-47 and overrunning villages and killing people unprovoked. Government has arrested nobody, let alone prosecuting anybody for the atrocious deeds. This must not be allowed to continue.
