| Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Monday declared ranching remains the most viable solution to the herders / farmers’ clashes in Nigeria. They also sought devolution of powers to states as yet another measure towards arresting the spate of security challenges currently bedevilling the nation. Their positions came barely a week after the southern governors took similar stand on the controversial issues of open grazing and restructuring among others. And rising from their meeting, the PDP governors urged President Muhammadu Buhari to summon an emergency meeting of the Nigerian Police Council to discuss ways out of the present security challenges. These major resolutions were stated in a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting held at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan, the Oyo state capital. Chairman of the Forum and Sokoto state Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who read the communiqué, said: “The meeting called on Mr President as the Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria and Commander in Chief of Nigerian Armed Forces to immediately send an Executive Bill to the National Assembly to amend the Nigerian Constitution to devolve more powers to the States with respect to security arrangements culminating in some form of State Policing and the general security architecture. “In the interim, Mr President should summon an immediate meeting of the Nigerian Police Council, which comprises Mr President and all State Governors and other critical stakeholders to evolve and implement strategies to combat the present threats to our union, especially with respect to policing. “The meeting agreed that the Police Force still remains the appropriate institution to secure our democracy and should not be subjected to personal attacks. The welfare, training, equipment, funding of all security agencies should be given priority.” “The meeting supports the earlier position taken by the Nigeria Governors Forum, Northern Governors Forum and recently by the Southern Governors Forum to adopt ranching as the most viable solution to the herders / farmers’ clashes in Nigeria; the restructuring of the Nigerian federation to devolve more powers and functions to the States; and reform of various civil institutions to achieve efficiency and equity for all sections of Nigeria. “The meeting enjoins all Nigerians to work together to achieve peace and harmony with one another, devoid of discrimination based on ethnicity, religion and other cleavages. To this end, the meeting called on the incompetent and rudderless APC Government to take bold and deliberate steps to de-escalate and lower tensions in our country, and concentrate on projects and policies that will enhance and promote national unity and cohesion. “The meeting re-iterated our earlier call for the National Assembly to expedite action on the passage of the Electoral Act that will ensure a free and fair election, including provisions for electronic accreditation and electronic transmission of votes,” they further said. At the meeting were the host and Governor of Oyo state, Oluseyi Makinde that of Rivers, Delta and Edo states, Nyesom Wike, Ifeanyi Okowa and Godwin Obaseki, respectively. Others at the meeting were Samuel Ortom of Benue, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu state, Adamu Fintiri of Adamawa, Bala Mohammed of Bauchi, Udoh Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom, and Douye Diri of Bayelsa state. ACF backs position Canvassing similar position, a socio-cultural group in the North – the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) – said open grazing as practiced by herders from neighbouring countries threatened Nigeria’s food security. ACF Chairman Audu Ogbeh, who made the position known Monday in a statement in Kaduna, also called for regulation of free movement of herders and cattle into Nigeria from West African countries without control.This, he said, was to ensure “those granted access will follow the rules and regulations of the country.”He also called for the resuscitation and development of the grazing reserves to serve as ranches for cattle to graze and grow. “The ACF does not see any reason to object to a decision taken in the best interest of all. The fact of the matter is that the crisis emanates from the belief by most herdsmen that they are free to enter any farm, eat up the crops and rape or kill anyone raising objections. Nobody or society can accept that.”The current high price of garri is one obvious reason of this behaviour. Few cassava farms can grow to maturity or be harvested by the farmers. So food security is already being threatened. “There is, however, the need to advise the governors in all states not to think that merely banning open grazing will end the crisis. The bulk of the violent herders are the ones marching in from neighbouring African countries in large numbers, thousands at a time and showing no regards to boundaries whether state or regional. They have to be stopped. “Therefore the Ganduje formula must be adopted to stop the entry into Nigeria of cattle from West Africa. The solution is for Nigeria to seek an amendment to Article 3 of the ECOWAS protocol especially as regards the free movement of cattle and other livestock without special permits. “If this is done, we have over 5m hectares of land in old grazing reserves left, enough to accommodate over 40 million cows if well grassed and watered. Northern governors should immediately look into this and see the viability. Within those spaces, ranches can be developed for lease to Nigerian herders so that this matter can be brought to an end. Thereafter any herders found roaming can be penalised. “Our ECOWAS neighbours can find ways to deal with their own issues the way they deem fit. We can seek support from AfDB, the World Bank, EU or the Kuwait Fund or any source willing to support us in resolving this problem. Hurling abuses, trading suspicion and threatening warfare as is currently the trend will only produce grief and disaster,” Ogbeh said. |
Ban on open grazing: Tambuwal, Bala, Fintiri, other PDP govs back southern colleagues
