…Farmers Call for Win-Win Solution
…Southern, Middle Belt Governors Draw Line in The Sand
…No Going Back on Decision – FG
June 27, (THEWILL) – Fresh indications of an imminent battle have emerged over the apparent determination of President Muhammadu Buhari to go ahead with the Grazing Routes policy despite the unpopularity of the plan and the open resentment to it by some sections of the country.
Seventeen Southern Governors had declared their opposition to open grazing in whatever form at their meeting, last month, in Asaba Delta State. Some had even gone ahead to ban the practice in their states vowing to deal with herdsmen who contravene their anti-grazing law.
But PMB was to later condemn the position of the Southern Governors as he expressed determination to push through the Grazing Routes plan. And in the cacophony of voices that have greeted the President’s disclosure that he had directed the Attorney–General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to excavate the gazette on open grazing along designated routes to move cattle to several parts of the country, the voices of farmers and herders are just coming up above the din.
UNFOLDING THE PLAN
THEWILL recalled the President had disclosed he had instructed Malami to begin the process of recovering land from persons who have converted cattle grazing routes for their personal use.
“What I did was ask him to go and dig the gazette of the First Republic when people were obeying laws. There were cattle routes and grazing areas. Cattle routes were for when they (herdsmen) are moving up country, north to south or east to west, they had to go through there,” Buhari had stated during his controversial interview with Arise Television a fortnight ago.
“If you allow your cattle to stray into any farm, you are arrested. The farmer is invited to submit his claims. The Khadi or the judge will say pay this amount and if you can’t, the cattle is sold. And if there is any benefit, you are given and people were behaving themselves and in the grazing areas, they built dams, put windmills in some places, there were even veterinary departments so that the herders are limited. Their route is known, their grazing area is known. So, I asked for the gazette to make sure that those who encroached on these cattle routes and grazing areas will be dispossessed in law and try to bring some order back into the cattle grazing.”
Continuing, the President said: “So, from other areas, people rush to Nigeria. You know Fulani from Mauritania and Central Africa look the same, so they feel they are the Nigerian ones and I assure you that we are trying to resuscitate these cattle routes, grazing areas and make them accountable.”
While the president’s disclosure may have revealed his determination to push through a policy considered unpopular, especially in the southern part of the country, many Nigerians insist it is capable of fuelling the lingering ethnic mistrust and ongoing sectarian conflict and violence in the country.
This, according to the antagonists of the plan, is particularly so, when contextualised within the decision of the 17 southern governors to ban open grazing in their respective states and halt movement of cattle across the south. Their decision, which formed part of their resolutions at the meeting in Asaba, followed worsening herder/ farmers conflicts that have led to the killings, maiming, raping and destruction of farms and livestocks across the country.
DRAWING THE BATTLE LINE
The opposition to the president’s disclosure was however prompt as prominent lawyers, some of them SAN, reacted immediately. They are Mr. Femi Falana, Chief Afe Babalola and Chief Mike Ozekhome. Dr. Ikpemosa Uhumaibi also objected to the plan, as well as Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State who doubles as the official spokesperson for the 17 Southern Governors.
Governor Nyesom Wike and his counterpart in Bayelsa, Duoye Diri, also lent their dissenting voices, claiming that the gazette under reference is a dead law. For the Senior Advocates of Nigeria, they have independently stated that the Land Use Act of 1978 empowers every state governor the right to control the land in his state.
The Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Ohaneaze Ndigbo, Middle Belt Forum and PANDEF also faulted the President as they called on the Federal Government to jettison the idea of reopening grazing routes in Nigeria.
THE LEGAL FIREWORKS
THEWILL gathered authoritatively at the weekend that the Southern Governors and their Middle Belt counterparts have resolved to drag the Federal Government to court over President Buhari’s resolve to push the policy through. A source close to the Southern Governors Forum, craving anonymity, confided in THEWILL that a decision had already been taken by the governors to jointly and separately drag the Federal Government to court over the matter.
The governors were said to have been enboldened by the ruling of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, which, on Thursday, May 23, 2021, affirmed the right of Nigerian states to implement anti-grazing laws in their domains as the court dismissed a suit seeking to compel President Buhari to direct security agencies to stop enforcement of the Benue Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranching Law of 2017.
In a judgment delivered during virtual proceedings, the judge, Ijeoma Ojukwu, had held that the enforcement of the anti-grazing law having been validly passed by the Benue House of Assembly, for instance, “lies with the state government.”
In dismissing the suit, the judge said the matter is not justiciable, implying that it is not a matter that a court of law can adjudicate on. ‘‘It’s matter of misconduct not triable by court,’’ Justice Ojukwu had ruled.
Also given the Southern governors full boldness to seek legal redress to force President Buhari to jettison his plan, a legal practitioner, Uhumaibi, in an interview, also said: “The fact that laws, decrees, regulation, notices and court decisions are published in an official gazette does not confer unintended extra-ordinary powers on their provisions.’
According to Uhumaibi,”It merely indicates official recognition, recording and publication for public knowledge and access. Therefore, if the gazette instrument was an Act of the National Assembly designating certain land in the country as grazing routes, then such an Act would be inconsistent with the Constitutional provisions that guarantee right to property and more specifically the Land Use Act, which confers land on governors in trust for the people.”
Even at that, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Ajibola Basiru, had insisted that there was no such law.
Ondo State governor, Akeredolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, insists that cattle grazing routes do not reflect the demands of a 21st-century development in cities and states.
“Ethiopia has about 200 million cattle and you won’t see them on the streets. They are located in the hinterlands designated for grazing. Things are changing and there has to be a paradigm shift,” he maintained.
His stance came as Governor Diri also said that there were no cattle grazing routes in Bayelsa, explaining that his people are predominantly farmers.
“For us, there are no cattle grazing routes in Bayelsa State. Our people are traditionally and occupationally fishermen. The idea of cattle grazing routes in Bayelsa is very strange to us in this part of the country,” Diri affirmed as he maintained that in a federal system of government, states have the right to enact laws to regulate the activities of their people, stressing that the prohibition on open grazing of cattle would be fully implemented in the state.
“There may be cattle grazing routes in the North but what is applicable in the North may not be applicable to us in the South. I don’t want to believe we are running a unitary system of government,” the Bayelsa governor added.
Nonetheless, the AGF, Malami, is still said to be adamant, flexing muscles with the Southern Governors over their decision to ban open grazing and physical movement of cattle across the region, insisting that such a ban is unconstitutional and infringes on the rights of movement enshrined in the nation’s laws.
NO GOING BACK – FG
As the heated debate continues, THEWILL gathered that the Federal Government may have started implementing the presidential directive, though with extreme caution, as officials of the Ministry of Agriculture are said to have since gone ahead to start the implementation of the presidential directive.
Lending credence to the claim last week, Acting Director, Animal Husbandry Development of the Ministry, Winnie Lai-Solarin, stated that the recovery of the routes had to be done to assist the pastoralists who cannot afford ranching at the moment, adding that conflict zones and routes that have been encroached upon as a “result of the development of infrastructure would be left out.”
According to Lai-Solarin, “In the course of farming or other human activities along the stock routes, the monuments were altered, but we know where they are. So, we want to say that some of them can be retraced. And this is particularly for the areas that are not encroached upon as of now. The pastoralists know the routes, you will see the pieces of monuments along them.
“Those routes that have not been encroached upon and not in conflict zones we will go ahead and retrieve them and guide the pastoralists along them. We did not get to where we are today in one day, so we cannot expect every pastoralist to suddenly start ranching now.”
Now that the government appears to be cautiously implementing the presidential directive, as the NLSTP programme continues with 20 states already buying into it, alongside the grazing project for which N1.31 billion was set aside in the 2021 budget, it is not sure how frayed nerves would be calmed in the ensuing weeks so that Nigerians can refocus on other burning issues on national importance deserving of attention.
CACOPHONY OF VOICES
In a statement obtained by THEWILL on Thursday, the Kulen Allah Cattle Rearers Association of Nigeria (KACRAN) said while it was in support of the presidential directive on grazing route and reserves recovery, it strongly thinks, from experience, that pastoralists (cattle herders) be made to permanently stay in the northern part of the country where there is the availability of land instead of moving to the southern part of the country to avoid further occurrence of conflicts between northern herders and farmers and residents of the southern part of the country.
The association maintained that for the directive to work successfully, the planned reclaiming of grazing routes should be restricted to the North with active participation of stakeholders including the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, FMARD, traditional rulers, pastoralists and their various associations and state governments of the north.
National President, KACRAN, Khalil Bello, said: “Pastoralists are advised to permanently stay in the northern part of this country where there is the availability of land instead of moving to the Southern/ Western part of this country. This is to avoid further occurrence of conflict(s) between our herders and our southern brothers.”
He said after a thorough study of the concept, it has come to the conclusion that “the success of the programme holistically depends on how government, traditional rulers, farmers and herders are ready, sincere and totally committed towards the programme’s success.”
Harping on the importance of committed and swift release of budgetary allocation and all the funds meant for the programme, he warned that there is a serious need for supervision by the government to make sure that the money allocated for the programme is expended judiciously.
“We say so for the fact that only God knows how many government programmes were made of which billions of Naira were released and spent for their executions but the money ended in the bank accounts or houses of very few unpatriotic individuals,” he added.
While advising governments to be ready to invoke the law against anybody found wanting and sabotaging the plan to reclaim the cattle routes and encroached grazing reserves, he stressed the need to recognise that there are custodians of the land whose involvement was crucial to the success of the plan and project.
“We advise the Federal Government to work hand to hand and relate closely with Northern governments, traditional rulers/ chiefs who are the custodians of most of the northern states free land, “ Bello said .
He asked that state governments of Northern states who are constitutionally said to be owners of all uncultivated lands be requested to give the programme maximum support and fullest co-operation for its success.
“Traditional rulers who are the custodian of all free land in their domains should strongly warn subjects to stop encroaching into grazing reserves or blocking cattle routes,” he advised.
CRUX OF THE MATTER
President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Arc. Kabir Ibrahim and his Tomatoes and Orchard Producers Association of Nigeria (TOPAN) counterpart, Bola Oyeleke, to an extent, agree with Bello of KACRAN. While Ibrahim thinks that the whole issue has been politicised yet redeemable, Oyeleke calls for a win-win plan that benefits herders and farmers alike.
Speaking to THEWILL in an interview, Ibrahim said though the problem with grazing routes and reserves became noticeable in 1999, it was not as bad as it is today.
“Shortly before Mr Audu Ogbeh was sworn in as Minister of Agriculture in 2015, I was a member of a committee led by Professor B Y Abubakar, Secretary of the Agriculture Research Council of Nigeria, which also included officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Presidency. We submitted a report that recommended that grazing routes and reserves should be established. We also noted in the report that the routes did not start and end in Nigeria. Some of them go as far as the Sahel in North Africa through Nigeria to East Africa. I know, for instance, the route from Dachia in Kaduna State to Osogbo in Osun State and through there to Lome,” he said.
“The report was not implemented. Mind you, I am also aware that President Buhari did a study on grazing when he was Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) chairman. When the report was not implemented people started farming and building on the reserves and the herdsmen were denied opportunities.”
TOWARDS A WIN-WIN SOLUTION
When asked what is to be done, he said as a farmer and owner of cattle too, he would support the National Livestock Programme, NLTP, that the Federal Government has designed to run from 2019 to 2028 as a collaborative programme among the FG, state governments, pastoralists, farmers and private investors.
The programme was launched by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo in 2018 in Gongoshi Grazing Reserve in Mayo-Belwa Local Government Area of Adamawa State.
“That is similar to what happens in the Netherlands and in England. The cattle need to stay in ranches because moving long distances makes them lose weight and meat,” he said.
But he was quick to add that it should be organised in such a way that pastoralists can still move with their herds of cattle but from ranch to ranch in search of pastures.
“You can’t keep 24 million animals in one place, they should be allowed to move around in such a way they would be able to get pastures without getting into farms,” he added.
He said his association often meets with leaders of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association and such other associations to resolve conflict between farmers and herders, adding with regret that “herders identified with “AK-47 guns are not Nigerians even as I can tell you there are criminals on both sides of the divide.”
Resolving issues with herders’ association has been undertaken regularly by the TOPAN, any time members complain of attack on their farms, the association’s president, Bola, told THEWILL.
“We honestly think the government should solve this problem because we, farmers and herders need each other. Cattle produce milk, meat and fertilizers and farmers produce food,” he maintained.
Taking a realistic look at the problem, he said: “ I have engaged with some cattle rearers and come to realise that there were grazing routes and reserves but during the government emphasis on developing agriculture, things took a different turn. That was the time the government should have also developed a policy on livestock. I think we should not shy away from the issue. But the way it is now, I think ranching is better and the government should bring out a clear-cut policy on it.”
CUSTODIANS OF THE LAND
KACRAN’s Khalil Bello refers to traditional rulers as custodians of land and state governments as constitutionally empowered to own all uncultivated land. He called on the Federal Government to cooperate with them to realise the aims of its livestock programme.
About the Author
