Governor of Ekiti state, Ayodele Fayose has said that the call made by Mansur Dan Ali, minister of defence, that states should suspend the implementat
Governor of Ekiti state, Ayodele Fayose has said that the call made by Mansur Dan Ali, minister of defence, that states should suspend the implementation of the anti-grazing law is an affront to federalism practised in the country. Dan Ali had recommended the suspension of the anti-grazing law which is operational in Benue, Taraba and Ekiti states and where clashes between herdsmen and farmers have led to the loss of lives. Dan Ali said the law has caused tension in those states.
“There is need to employ other channels with the affected states to reduce tension by suspending the implementation of the anti-open grazing law while also negotiating safe routes for the herders. The urgent need for the Nigeria Police and Department of State Services to prosecute all the suspects arrested in states. The need to hasten the establishment of a National Commission on the Control of Small Arms and Light weapons in Nigeria,” Tukur Gusau, Dan Ali’s spokesman, quoted him as saying in a meeting with president Buhari.
Governor Fayose however wondered why it is difficult for the federal government to support cattle ranching. The governor said the federal government should be concerned with finding a way of taking the herdsmen out of the bush in view of giving them a better life through ranching.
“The call by the FG through the minister of defence, Dan-Ali that states should suspend implementation of the anti-grazing law is an affront on federalism that is practised in Nigeria. It is amazing that at the level of the presidency, they still see states as appendages of the FG.
“January this year, the minister of defence blamed passage of anti-grazing law in some states as the cause of killings by herdsmen. Today, he is still singing the same song. Is there something to this old system of nomadic cattle rearing that they are not telling Nigerians? Why is president Buhari not rearing his cows through open grazing? Why is it so difficult for the FG to support cattle ranching? Here in Ekiti, the anti-open grazing law stays. It is the presidency that should stop looking the other way while herdsmen go about killing Nigerians.
“Me thinks the Presidency should be concerned about how to take the herdsmen out of the bush and give them decent life by embracing cattle ranching. How can anyone be pleased subjecting his own people to a life of following cows through the bush from Yobe to Lagos?” he concluded by asking.
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, an umbrella body of herdsmen, has consistently demanded that the anti-grazing law should be revoked.
