What is President Muhammadu Buhari’s motive to insist that grazing reserves be established across the country when Nigerians have openly kicked against the policy and have embraced ranching instead of open grazing?
Governor Samuel Ortom wondered aloud when he asked this question on Friday when he was reacting to a statement from the Presidency indicating that President Buhari had approved recommendations of a committee to review “with dispatch,” 368 grazing sites across 25 States in the country, “to determine the levels of encroachment”.
Expressing disappointment of Mr President over the move, Governor Ortom said with the latest move, it was crystal clear that the president is planning to plunge the country into crisis, thus he warned that he should desist from turning Nigeria to “Cows Republic”
Reminding the President on the atrocities already committed by herders, Ortom said: “In a country where insecurity has reached an all-time high with hundreds being killed by armed herdsmen, bandits, and other terrorists, the Presidency is only bordered about animals and their safety and is deploying all machinery and arsenals of government to impose grazing reserves and cattle routes on Nigerians. This is unacceptable!
“The Buhari administration has always turned a blind eye to the unimaginable levels of cattle encroachment on lands belonging to Nigerians. Mr President has never come out even once to condemn activities of herdsmen and the attacks they visit on innocent people. The only time the President is heard speaking about atrocities of the herders is when he is defending and protecting them.
“It is now clear that the Presidency wants to plunge the country into avoidable crisis. Otherwise, what is the justification for President Buhari’s insistence that grazing reserves be established across the country when Nigerians have openly kicked against the policy and have embraced ranching.
