After Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, dismissed the Southern governors resolution banning open grazing in their states, President Muhammadu Buhari’s position on the matter became all too predictable.
The only surprise is he didn’t double down on the vehicle spare parts analogy, preferring to wrap his opposition in the garb of constitutionality. The ban, he said, in the statement by his spokesman Garba Shehu was of “questionable legality.”
Thankfully, the president, however grand and lofty his office, isn’t the court. He is entitled to hold an opinion and we’ll see about legality and constitutionality when the judiciary weighs in.
Following their Asaba summit, the governors announced they intended to visit the president to push their proposals. But on the strength of the statement bluntly rejecting the grazing ban, such a parley has become moot.
Still, I am stunned that the president could so casually dismiss the consensus of half the country over which he presides – if you add Benue that makes 18 out of 36 states – choosing the ‘my way or the highway’ approach.
Whether out of shock or anger, Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu who chairs the Southern Governors Forum has released a statement questioning whether Shehu actually spoke for Buhari or some other unnamed interests.
But that’s irrelevant because the president hasn’t come out to disown his spokesman on the grazing ban statement or any other such release ever. It’s inconceivable that such a position would be ventilated without authorisation by his principal.
However, there are fundamental questions arising from Buhari’s comments. Just like his top law officer, he presents this matter as being mainly about the rights of herders to carry on their business in any part of the country.
Such attempts at making the governors’ action seem like a causeless effort to abridge the constitutional rights of some Nigerians is dishonest.
It is also insensitive because it fails to admit that in exercising their rights they trample on the rights of people who just want to go their farms in peace and meet their investments intact.
There are well-documented cases linking herders to crimes like rape, kidnappings and murder. Recently, former Minister for Agriculture and chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) admitted their involvement in the violence, but blamed thousands of foreigners who cross our borders unhindered for the bulk of the atrocities.
Driving the violence is their sense of entitlement that they have right to enter a total stranger’s farmland and let their cattle run riot over his crops without consequences.
A few years ago, no less a personality than Chief Olu Falae, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and one-time presidential candidate, suffered the humiliation of being taken captive by herders. He recounted how year after year they would invade his farm and set acres of palm trees on fire. His protestations were often met with threats of physical harm being done to him.
Such tales through the years never provoke empathy towards those who suffer losses as a result of the excesses of the pastoralists, instead we’re constantly assailed with blind, one-sided justifications for perpetuation of an outmoded practice.
It is amusing to hear the president talk about how the problem between herdsmen and farmers has been with us for ages. Is he arguing that crime and injustice be allowed to continue just because they have been with us for long?
Buhari dismissed the governors’ ban as offering “no solution” and yet this very idea is growing on many north and south of the country. Indeed, it would be very wrong to think opposition to the open grazing ban is unanimous in the north.
Many governors, prominent individuals and groups like the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) have come out to embrace it, acknowledging that the anachronistic practice of marching cattle for hundreds of miles had become a lightning rod for conflict in the face of development and exploding populations.
The ban isn’t even a new or original initiative of Southern governors, neither is it correct to cast it in terms of a power show by one region against the other. In fact, a constitutionally recognised body had prepared the template the governors reiterated.
Back in April 26, 2018, a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo approved the recommendation of its sub-committee that open grazing of cattle be banned across the country.
The three-man sub-committee on herdsmen/farmers clashes constituted by the government in February 2018 was headed by Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi.
It was specifically mandated to unravel the causes of clashes and dialogue with relevant stakeholders to end the killings of innocent citizens.
Other members of the sub-committee were Governors Simon Lalong (Plateau), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Darius Ishaku (Taraba), and Bindow Jubrilla (Adamawa).
So this was clearly a “solution” that was approved by NEC in clear contradiction of the Buhari statement which dismissed the Asaba resolution as offering “no solution.”
On the contrary, what the Presidency has been pushing in terms or ranching, RUGA or by whatever name called, doesn’t offer an immediate response to ongoing, pervasive criminality and bloodletting that has frightened many off their farms in large swathes of the country.
It doesn’t address the fears of people that their ancestral lands could be cleverly taken from them through these so-called RUGA initiatives given historical precedents. In the face of fierce opposition in the South is it any wonder that governors were falling over themselves to deny they had made land available for such businesses?
The fear is deep-seated and one press statement isn’t going to dispel it, not when many feel – rightly and or wrongly – that the president isn’t impartial on the matter.
It’s good that the Buhari raises legal questions about the ban. He cannot stop states from making laws for the safety of their people and if the open grazing ban becomes one such legislation so be it. After all, Justice Ifeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja last week affirmed the right of states to implement such laws. The best he and Malami can do is challenge such acts at the appropriate courts and hope they would be struck down.
The maiming and pillaging going on in most governors’ domains is mindboggling. They can’t just sit back helplessly while Buhari takes his sweet old time to address the problem – just because it’s something that predates the Amalgamation.
(The Nation)
