• Open grazing review and Gambari Committee is dead on arrival – Ikemefuna
• Buhari has hidden agenda – Ortom
• The President should allocate the same sum of N6.25 billion given to Katsina to every other State – Falana
By Neta Nwosu
Penultimate Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari stirred up a fresh controversy with the approval to review 368 grazing sites in 25 States of the country. Opposing views, ill-tempered exchanges, and resistance have continued to trail the Federal Government’s latest push to review the grazing reserves. Malam Garba Shehu, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, confirmed the President’s stance in a statement on same day. He said President Buhari has approved recommendations of the Committee, chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari to review “with dispatch 368 grazing sites across 25 states in the country, and to determine the level of encroachment.” According to Shehu, the Committee had recommended the collection of field data on 368 Grazing Reserves across 25 States, to assess encroachment and encroachers, stakeholder engagements and sensitization.
“The number of the grazing re serves and States were deduced from considerations of existing security concerns, and other pre-existing social economic situations,” he said. Reacting to the President’s approval for the review of the grazing reserves, Most Rev. Charles Michael Hammawa, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Jalingo, in an exclusive interview with The Catholic Herald newspaper cautioned President Buhari on open grazing of cattle, against the wish of the majority of Nigerians. Bishop Hammawa said cattle-rearing is a private business, like crop farming, and if the Federal Government wants to allocate land to animal husbandry, poultry, fish, pig and goat farmers should benefit too.
The prelate stated further, “Well, that didn’t come to me as a surprise, observing and judging from what this government has been doing, since they came into power, totally oblivious of the sufferings of people, totally ignoring the wishes of the people, and all that. It is a sad development, no doubt. It is not fair, it is not just. It’s like promoting one class of people, their business over all others. Farming is not only rearing of cattle, even if it is rearing of animals, there are others who rear other forms of animals, is that same attention being given to them? What about other businesses that are there, where people have to struggle on their own to get land? This one is going to be given to one set of people, what for? This is not just.
That is not fairness. “And to totally ignore the majority of the people is not good for our system; it is not good for democracy. It is just one of those unfortunate things that we have to cope with in a centralised administration. It is not democratic. If the government is sensitive, if this government is a government of the people, by the people and for the people, then they should think twice and revert the decision. It is not too late to do so, people are still crying and fighting against that, let them do the wishes of the people, whom they represent in government.
” In another vein, Sir Patrick Ikemefuna, former National President, Association of Papal Knights and Medalists in Nigeria (APKMN), and a business mogul wondered why the President has continued to insist on open grazing when the Northern and Southern governors, as well as the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria have rejected open grazing. He urged the Federal Government to extend the allocation of N6.2billion to Katsina for immediate establishment of ranching to other states. “In July, in Asaba, Delta State, the seventeen Southern State Governors made a resolution against open grazing. However, these state governors and the Fulanis feel that open gazing is counter-productive to the existence of Nigeria. Open grazing is counter-productive, even though some Northerners feel that the Fulanis have the right to move to anywhere they want to go to, in Nigeria, that the ban on open grazing is a restriction of the Fulanis to enjoy their freedom in the land that God has given to us.
We know that the open grazing has caused a lot of problems, and the one of Benue State, four years ago, is reference point when even Priests and Parishioners were butchered in the Church. “The Northern Governors also met, and they condemned open grazing. The Southern Governors have condemned open grazing. Even the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria has condemned open grazing. Who is against the ban on open grazing? If all of them are against open grazing, both the governors from the North and South, and the Fulani Miyetti Allah Association condemned open grazing, so who is in support of it? There must be an unseen hand, and that unseen hand is now the Federal Government. For the Federal Government consists of the whole states, if their governors are against it; so what is happening? It means that the tiny few are now trying to force open grazing on the people.
“Now, I thought that Nigeria has gone far beyond this open grazing issue. When the government received the Committee headed by Prof. Gambari, the Chief of Staff to the President, he approved their request to go and collect field data, assess areas that have been encroached, that is the grazing reserves that have been encroached. The Federal Government wants the Committee to engage the stakeholders in resolving the issue, and I think the first among those directives to the Committee is to find a way of gazetting of the ungazetted land and reserves. This is terrible, very, very terrible. Why? “For the following reasons, the Federal Government has no legal right to legislate or direct on land issues in Nigeria. The Land Use Act actually gives the power of land to state governors. Any land laws and land issues are vested in the governors of the states, even the President cannot go to Katsina and take land, he cannot, that land, which he gets in Katsina must be given to him by the governor of Katsina State.
Basically or technically, these directives cannot work, and this grazing reserves issue is going to be a point of catastrophe, and can lead to, I won’t say disintegration of Nigeria, but it can lead to really bad issues within our existence. The Fulanis are a single minority; they are minority in the country. Even the Hausas that are in the majority, and the Middle Belt that are bigger than them in population, we are not hearing about them because we are now talking about the North and South. So legally, the President’s approval on open grazing, and his Committee is already dead on arrival. “Because when they come to a state, they cannot legislate on a land in that state, who can legislate land? It’s the governor. So, there is no way they can go about that.
The President was saying that there are about 368 reserves in Nigeria within 25 states. These 368 grazing reserves, which are routes in 25 states, do not exist any more. So, what the President is talking about is on paper, but not on ground. Because those routes, due to urbanization, population explosion, movement, those routes have been occupied, and built up by the governors since the 1979 Land Use Act have already given out most of these lands with Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) to people. So, most of these land that the president and his Committee think that they have is out of place, they do not exist. These 368 grazing reserves are no more. If existing, there would just be few. “However, the President should know that state governors have been legislating against open grazing.
We know that the first state to do that was Benue, and that cause Governor Ortom a lot of problems. Since the Asaba resolution or the declaration of the Southern Governors, about ten states or 12 states, as at today have already legislated against open grazing. It’s unfortunate to say that all the noise in Asaba, by now we should be talking about 17 states in the South that have Bishop Hammawa to Buhari: You are promoting one… legislated against open grazing, but probably about eight or ten, so what about the other states? Is it that they are not able to get the House of Assembly to legislate on it? But that is by the way. Where the governors have legislated, the Federal Government cannot gazette, anything they do at the federal level would be illegal, null and void.
“So, we look at the political angle. I think the open grazing has become a political issue. Nobody is questioning about the need of Nigeria in terms of crops and livestock, their means of survival, whereas we need to produce for real internal existence of the population that are growing. However, we should know that it is not only livestock, livestock is only part of agriculture; what of crops, the main food, even the food you need to feed the livestock. So who is concerned about the land that we need to grow maize, grow cocoa, grow rice, who is legislating on those ones? But we are only concerned about only one aspect of agriculture, again mostly carried out by a particular tribe, and then forcing it on the country. “After the legal aspect of what I have said, the next thing again on why it cannot succeed is that Nigeria has gone beyond this. Agriculture, modernization has gone beyond this.
Nobody is now doing nomadic farming. The land does not exist, the area does not exist for people to travel round the whole country and carry the animals about. So, ranching is the way. So the Federal Government has to accept that what they are doing is in futility, it is futile, and cannot succeed. “See the issue of RUGA, RUGA was even a good idea, which we have embraced easily; the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) programme under RUGA, including ranching. That means the livestock has to be put in a ranch. This is what exists in other countries. Netherlands and co, smaller than us produce enough milk, and they ship it to Nigeria. Most of the dairy products and liquid milk we take in Nigeria are coming from a small country like Netherlands. So, it shows that you do not need to have hectares or millions and millions of hectares of land to produce cow.
Luckily for us, Ekiti State was able to import some breeds of cows, and they have started ranching, and from there, they can have dairy products. So, ranching is the way. And I’m glad to see that states like Taraba, Kano, and even Katsina, where the President comes from have already embraced this RUGA programme, which includes ranching. So if states like Katsina, Kano, where you have the dominant Fulanis have embraced ranching, what is the matter? The Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje is a full Fulani man, and he has asked all his people, who want land, and who cannot go about to come to Kano, and he will give them where to do ranching. So, who is going for open grazing? Who are these unseen hands? They are some people, with nasty sinister motives that is why I think that it has become political. People must be using it for political reasons because I don’t see why.
“Everybody condemns open grazing, but some people in government, with power are trying to force it on us. Unfortunately, this group is allegedly led by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami because he has made utterances in support of open grazing, and even saying about the legality of open grazing, and we know that is completely false. “So, I believe that the issue of open grazing, as at today has called for technical and what we think would be agricultural reasons, to go into. I consider them as now political, nothing else, and there is a tiny minority within the Fulanis and within the government that wants to use open grazing.
Is it going to be a courier for those who want power to advance into all corners of the country? That is what is being looked into. Is it a way of people to get into rural areas, and parts of the country, where normally they would not get to. We have seen how the Fulani herders have infiltrated states, and where you would now have farmers-herders clashes. So, I believe that they want to use it as a channel, a route, which they will use to advance politically into various parts of the country. That is what I think. “Fortunately, the Federal Government gave N6.2billion to Katsina and Kaduna states respectively, for ranching. Kaduna and Katsina have already started ranching.
Can I say that the Federal Government is going one step forward and two steps backward? This amount of money, the N6.2 billion that has been given, each to Kaduna and Katsina states, should also be given to every state of the federation to start ranching. So, I fully condemn the government decision on these 368 grazing routes and reserves in 25 states. For me, it is dead on arrival, I don’t see how they can force it on any state governor who is not interested.” The implementation of the laws by Benue and Taraba States has caused herdsmen to react angrily, by killing hundreds of people in the states. Many states in Nigeria have wit nessed the brutality of extremist Fulani herdsmen. In recent years, Benue State, in particular, has been a hotbed for such internecine carnage.
In 2014, Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State constituted a Peace and Reconciliation Committee, with a mandate to finding lasting solutions to the Fulani herdsmen/farmers crisis, and followed this up with the Amnesty Programme in 2016. However, this and other efforts, given sustained attacks, have not been successful. On May 22, 2017, Governor Samuel Ortom signed the Open-Grazing Prohibition and Establishments of Ranches Bill, 2017 into law, as part of alternative efforts to halt what many have described as ethnoreligious cleansing in Benue. While this law drew praise and applause from Benue citizens and other Nigerians, it elicited condemnation and utter rejection by members of the Miyetti Allah KautalHore (MAKH) and Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN). They warned Governor Ortom against implementing the law, describing it at different junctures as obnoxious,punitive, exclusivist, and a recipe for disaster, which they ‘vowed to resist’.
In one of their communiqués, they called on their patron, President Muhammadu Buhari, to prevail over Ortom, and call the governor to order: “We totally reject the repressive and oppressive ‘Anti-Open Grazing Law’ of Benue State as it is fundamentally going against our culture, economic interest and constitutional rights … We are appealing to His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, to call Governor Samuel Ortom to order, as his actions are a fundamental threat to peaceful coexistence and food security in Nigeria.” Peaceful coexistence has been elusive both prior to and after the implementation of the Benue law till date. On 1 January 2018, while the world was celebrating the New Year, Benue was soaked in blood as about 73 people were gruesomely murdered. Again, on April 24, some herdsmen invaded a Catholic church in Ayar-Mbalom village of Gwer East Local Government Area, killing two Priests and 17 worshipers at a 5:30 am Mass.
These victims were respectively given mass committals in the state, on January 11 and May 22, 2018. According to a research by Adamu and Ben on the Benue crisis between January 1, 2014 and August31, 2017, a total of 14, out of 23 Local Government Councils in Benue State have been attacked, 4333 people (Christians) killed, over 195,576 Christian homes and 30 churches destroyed, along with innumerable cases of sexual harassments and assault. Ahead of the September 1 targeted date, the anti-open grazing laws have become operational in Ogun, Abia, Oyo, Ekiti,Ebonyi, Rivers, Osun, Bayelsa and Ondo States, which have signed the legislations, while Delta, Akwa Ibom and Enugu have sent bills to their state Assemblies. A few of the states like Anambra, Cross River, Imo, Edo and Lagos are yet to begin legislative process on the bill. Consequently, the group, through its Miyetti Allah Cattle Associations, has urged the Federal Government to refrain from enforcing the review of open grazing.
The Federal Government has had a long struggle in pursuit of implementation of open grazing. It has consistently introduced various initiatives but has met stiff resistance from the people of southern and other regions in Nigeria. In 2019, Rural Grazing Area (RUGA), a programme of the Federal Government was re-proposed by the Muhammadu Buhari government, through his former Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbe. Following stiff widespread opposition by Nigerians, non-governmental groups, religious bodies and activists not only in the southern part of Nigeria, but also in the north-central and other zones, RUGA was redesigned as the 2019-2028 National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP). NLTP again, suffered yet another extensive rejection as it contains components of RUGA.
This, notwithstanding, the Federal Government has continued to tinker with the unpopular policy. Human Rights Activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana who was a guest on Channels TV has faulted the Presidency’s approval to review grazing reserves in 25 states in the country. He said: “we’ve gone beyond this stage of looking for grazing routes”. “As far as the law is concerned, the President cannot, (with profound respect), be talking of looking for grazing routes in 2021, Nigeria. “The Northern Governors Forum, the Southern Governors Forum, and even the Miyetti Allah group have all come to a conclusion that open grazing is obsolete,” he added. “Many believe ranching is a better approach to the problem.We need a national resolution of this crisis. We need a scientific solution.
We need a modern solution to this problem. State governors are already investing in ranching”, Falana said. In his recent statement to newsmen recently, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria urged the Federal Government to give the special allocation of N6.25 billion that he granted to Katsina State for the establishment of ranching in the state to other states in the country, stressing that President Buhari has adopted ranching, to replace open grazing in line with the NLTP. “Since what is good for the goose is good for the gander, we call on the President to approve the allocation of the same sum of N6.25 billion for every other State Government, for ranch development purposes. This demand is in consonance with section 17 (1) of the Constitution, which stipulates that the people of Nigeria shall have equality of rights, obligations and opportunities before the law,” he maintained.
The Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, while speaking with newsmen in Markurdi, on arrival from Asaba, Delta State, where he attended the burial of the father of Governor IfeanyiOkowa, insisted that under his watch, the state will never accept open grazing. He threatened to drag President Buhari to court, should he insist on going ahead with any policy that will support open grazing or grazing reserve in the country. Ortom maintained that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria supersedes the Northern Nigeria Law that provided for grazing reserves, the Governor said the state government will not accept the policy, insisting that he would rather stand with the NLTP. Wondering on why the President has continued to insist on open grazing, which had been banned in Benue since 2017, he said, “The truth is that if the entire country had accepted ranching, why is Mr. President insisting on open grazing, when there is no land for such.
“In the 50s, when this policy was initiated, what was the population of Nigeria, it was less that 40 million, but today we are more than 200 million. The 923 square kilometer is not even enough to cater for the population. The reason Mr. President is insisting on this, to some of us, I think shows there is a hidden agenda. “Under my watch, Benue State will not accept open grazing. I have already briefed my lawyers should Mr. President insist on going ahead with the policy,” “Farmers have been chased into IDP camps by herders, and children are dying of starvation, in addition to being denied education, yet what is more important to the central government is the wellbeing of cows. We expected the pitiable condition of displaced people to be the preoccupation of the Federal Government, but it is sad that what the Presidency is interested in is grabbing land for cows.” Many have itemized reasons why open grazing is insupportable, insisting that the Federal Government has no land in any state, coupled with the fact that the law exclusively grants right to control land to governors.
