President Muhammadu Buhari has received a lot of flak from governors and legal practitioners over his egregious attack on the resolution by the Southern Governors’ Forum to ban open grazing in their states at the famous Asaba Declaration of May 11.
Recall that Buhari while reacting to the governor’s position said in a statement by his spokesman, Mr. Garba Shehu that what the state chief executives did was a violation of the constitutional right of Nigerians to live and do business in any part of the country, irrespective of such citizen’s state of origin.
He also stated that the position of the southern governors was of questionable legality.
“It is very clear that there was no solution offered from their resolutions to the herder-farmer clashes that have been continuing in our country for generations.
“Citizens of the southern states – indeed citizens of all states of Nigeria – have a right to expect their elected leaders and representatives to find answers to challenges of governance and rights, and not to wash their hands off hard choices by, instead, issuing bans that say: ‘not in my state.’
“It is equally true that their announcement is of questionable legality, given the Constitutional right of all Nigerians to enjoy the same rights and freedoms within every one of our 36 states (and FCT) -regardless of the state of their birth or residence,” he said.
The president went ahead to offer cold comfort solution to the anachronistic cattle rearing method by ordering the rehabilitation of grazing reserves.
He said the ministry had submitted a report detailing the recommendations to the president, who endorsed it 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.”
“Fortunately, this declaration has been preempted, for whatever it is intended to achieve and Mr. President, who has rightly been worried about these problems more than any other citizen in consultation with farmers and herders alike, commissioned and approved an actionable plan of rehabilitating grazing reserves in the states, starting with those that are truly committed to the solution and compliant with stated requirements,” Shehu stated.
Reacting to the president’s speech, the governor of Benue State, r Samuel Ortom said opposed the presidential decision to revive grazing reserves.
He said the reserves were created when Nigeria had a population of 50 million and have since been taken over by airports, schools, roads, hospitals and other infrastructure.
Ortom said in a statement by his spokesman, Mr. Terver Akase that there was no land in the state meant for grazing reserve.
He added that the state had embraced ranching and that the Southern Governors’ Forum and other prominent Nigerians had also supported it.
He expressed concern that the federal government was still pushing for the continuation of open grazing and the return of cattle routes of the 1950s and 60s, adding that the presidency’s endorsement of open grazing has emboldened armed herders who lay claim to all land in Nigeria as belonging to Fulani, hence their invasion of farming communities and killing of original landowners
“At present, the routes have been taken over by airports, roads, schools, hospitals, as well as markets, houses and other human activities.
“It is now clear that there is a hidden agenda which only the presidency knows,” he said.
“In Benue, we have embraced ranching as the viable alternative to open grazing and there is no going back on our resolve.”
He said while the state would not stop the federal government’s plan to rehabilitate grazing reserves or create cattle routes in other states, “we wish to make it clear that no land in Benue State had been gazetted for grazing routes.”
Similarly, the governor of Ondo State and chairman of South-South Governors’ Forum, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, lambasted the presidency for its hawkish stand on cattle grazing saying the south would not cede a parcel of land to marauding herdsmen.
“No inch of the space delineated and known, currently, as South-West, and indeed the whole South, will be ceded to a band of invaders masquerading as herdsmen under any guise,” he said.
He descended of the presidential spokesman, Shehu, whom he said hides “under some opaque, omnibus and dubious directives to create confusion in the polity.
In a statement by his senior special assistant on special duties and strategy, Dr Doyin Odebowale, the governor said: “Anyone who has been following the utterances of this man, as well as his fellow travellers on the self-deluding, mendacious but potentially dangerous itinerary to anarchy cannot but conclude that he works, assiduously, for extraneous interests whose game plan stands at variance with the expectations of genuine lovers of peaceful coexistence among all the peoples whose ethnic extractions are indigenous to Nigeria.
“Mr. Garba must disclose, this day, the real motive(s) of those he serves, definitely not the President. He cannot continue to hide under some opaque, omnibus and dubious directives to create confusion in the polity. The easy recourse to mendacious uppity in pushing a barely disguised pernicious agendum is well understood. The declaration that the recommendations of the Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, a mere political appointee like Garba Shehu, are now the “lasting solutions” which eluded all the elected representatives of the people of the Southern part of the country, exposes this man as a pitiable messenger who does not seem to understand the limits of his relevance and charge.
“Mr. Garba contends that ‘their announcement is of questionable legality,’ referring to the 17 governors of the Southern States, but the decision of certain elements to take the ancestral lands of other people to settle their kinsmen, including the gun-wielding killer herdsmen and their families, and provide ‘veterinary clinics, water points for animals, and facilities for herders and their families including schooling through these rehabilitated reserves’ for which ‘the Federal Government is making far-reaching and practical changes allowing for different communities to co-exist side-by-side,’ does not appear to him as a comprehensive plan for land grabbing, a precursor to internal colonialism. He wants to “revive forest reserves” but seems particularly uninterested in the current position of the same law, that he and his cohorts often misinterpret to serve parochialism and greed. Governors no longer have powers over the lands in their territories.”
“It is superfluous, and that is being charitable, for anyone to remind us of the constitutional right of bona fide citizens ‘to enjoy rights and freedoms within every one of our 36 States (and FCT)-regardless of their state of birth and residence.’
“Most traditional families in Nigeria have occupations. Pastoralism is not an exception. Any ethnic group still trapped in anachronism may be assisted to embrace modernity. Dispossessing communities of their ancestral lands, encouraging denizens of the forests to overrun lands belonging to other people and forcing alien bands of migrants on the local populace to live ‘side-by-side’ with other communities cannot be for the purpose of animal husbandry,” he said.
For his part, human rights lawyer, Mr. Mike Ozekhome, said the presidency was wrong for declaring SGF resolution as “unconstitutional.”
In a statement entitled, ‘President Buhari goofed on southern governors’ anti-grazing stance’, Ozekhome stated: “President Muhammadu Buhari has obviously been ill-advised on the well thought out southern governors’ stance against open grazing by the attorney general whose views were made known only two days ago.”
Ozekhome subsequently stated that he was ready to defend the governors free of charge in the event that such a case was instituted.
For another senior lawyer, Mr. Tayo Oyetibo, said it is correct to say that every Nigerian has a right to freedom of movement in any part of Nigeria.
However, he stated that herders’ right of movement does not extend to right of cattle destroying people’s farms
“It does not include the right of cattle to destroy the farms of other people.
“If a governor passes as a law that prohibits open grazing, it is within the powers of the state government to do that. Such a ban does not in any way prevent other Nigerians or the Nigerians involved from moving freely within that state,” he said.
The chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof Itse Sagay, said the ban ought to have the backing of each state house of assembly.
Nevertheless, he said: “The governors are within their rights to ban open grazing. The Land Use Act gives them that power, so I think it is a straightforward matter.
“Millions of Nigerians in the South have had their families kidnapped, countless women have been raped and many farms destroyed. The statement by the Presidency does not show any concern for the Nigerians who have suffered from series of attacks by some of the herders. It is not a matter to be easily dismissed and the statement by the Presidency is regrettable.”
Another senior lawyer, Mr. Damian Dodo said: “Although Section 39 of the constitution provides for the freedom of movement of all Nigerian citizens, such right has repeatedly been abused by some of the herders. Since the anti-open grazing law is reasonably justifiable in the circumstances and the governors are acting within their powers, I believe it has a legal basis.”
In defence, Shehu, said while fielding questions on Arise Television that many people misconstrued Buhari’s views on the southern governors’ resolutions at Asaba meeting.
Shehu said Buhari would want to see an end to the archaic practice of open grazing of cattle.
He added that the objective of the president and that of the governors fully align.
However, he stated that the only difference between the positions of both parties is the approach to achieving the aim, adding that the president is insistent that it should be done in an organised manner.
“The president wants to see an end to open grazing; he wants to see ranching; but he wants it in a way that’s organised and he has a plan for it and the plan will take off in June.”
According to him, all the ongoing attacks on the president are from people who are in the mood for a public fight.
He said states that were able to meet the minimum requirements would be encouraged to embark on ranching, and expressed optimism that those opposed to ranching will change their minds when it becomes fully functional.
Shehu said the president viewed open grazing as old-fashioned and was looking forward to a replacement for the medieval practice.
But he reiterated that banning open grazing without an alternative is not a good approach to the issue.
He said the president was worried about the crisis generated by the matter, adding that the generalisation of every herder as criminals is not the right thing to do.
While admitting that the ranks of the nomads had been infiltrated with people now bearing AK-47 rifles to kill and maim, Shehu called for calm as the issue won’t be solved by public show of strength.
“Let us stop this shadow boxing. You just brought one or two people here who said things that nobody said from our own end. Did the president say he didn’t support…? He’s opposed to the way the governors have chosen to do it,” he said.
With ThisDay, Punch reports
