The statement came in reaction to the President Buhari’s recent approval for the review of 368 grazing sites in 25 states across the country.
According to Afenifere in a statement by its General Secretary, Sola Ebiseni, every herder has a state of origin, hence, governments of their respective states should make arrangements for them to settle in the territory where their culture will be fully appreciated.
He said, “for the umpteenth time, let the President be told that the constitution which he reveres relentlessly and the Land Use Act which derives equal force therefrom, extol the majesty of the people over their land.
“Even the Governor who holds the land in his state in trust for the people cannot dispossess any citizen thereof, except for proven overriding public interest through the due process of law. The current exercise is not only a waste of tax payers’ money; it is a sweet pipedream in a fool’s paradise.
“It does not also matter that having felt the pulse of the nation in his interview with the Arise Television in June, the President is still wasting tax payers scare resources on a programme whose conception lacks all conceivable growth capacity.
“The concept of Grazing Reserves, otherwise known as Hurumi, which was introduced during the colonial and immediately after Independence failed in the North particularly in the Middlebelt provinces, notwithstanding a monolithic one North government and permissive land use regime.
“It is instructive that the recommending and implementation committee is headed by Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the Chief of Staff to the President who, in conjunction with Professor Attahiru Jega, during the first term of Buhari, presented a “Memorandum On Pastoralist- Farmers’ Conflicts And the Search for Peaceful Resolution” published in January 2018, which contained the same recommendations now being foisted on the nation.”
