It seems the federal government is bent on using subterranean means to carve out grazing routes in all parts of the country despite the public outrage that greeted the idea when it was first mooted in 2015. Last week, the National Coordinator, Grazing Stock Routes, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mahmud Bello made a pronouncement stating that the federal government would carve out 6,000 kilometers of cattle grazing routes across the country in 2017. According to Bello, “we are going to provide 6,000 kilometers of cattle routes across the country; we are going to open the primary routes first, while the states and local governments are expected to launch the secondary routes. All the same, all the states may not have an equal share of the routes. Bauchi may have 200 kilometers and Plateau may have 50 kilometers but we are going to spread it”.
We view with seriousness, surreptitious attempts by some interest groups to implement the National Grazing Reserve Bill that failed to pass into law in both chambers of the National Assembly. Majority of Nigerians reject in totality the idea of creating grazing reserves for cattle herdsmen in all parts of Nigeria. It is more economical and safer to create ranches for cattle breeders and eliminate completely the incessant clashes between rural farmers and herdsmen.
The atrocities of herdsmen are unimaginable. Rural farmers in all parts of Nigeria, especially the South East and South South zones have suffered untold losses of lives and crops in the hands of cattle herdsmen who graze openly in farmlands. Some rural economies have been destroyed because many communities no longer practice subsistence farming due to the fear of attack by notorious herdsmen. Women and girls in many parts of the southern Nigeria have been raped openly by gun totting herdsmen in the presence of their husbands and fathers.
For example, rice farms were destroyed in Awka, Anambra state and parts of Delta state in 2015 by herdsmen. The traditional ruler of Ogwashiukwu in Delta state was kidnapped and later killed by herdsmen, while a former secretary to the government of the federation, Olu Falae was abducted by killer herdsmen in his farm at Ondo state and was only released after ransom had been paid. The massacre of over 300 natives of Ukpabi Nimbo, in Uzo Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State is still fresh in our memories.
The fact that the culprits are never brought to book by the security agencies, neither are compensations ever paid to the victims create the impression that some people in high places are not only shielding the herdsmen but also encouraging them and possibly using them to promote a hidden agenda. The silence of the Presidency on matters concerning the herdsmen is also a source of concern to well-meaning Nigerians when the same Presidency is very vocal when the issue of self-determination is raised.
We wonder what the federal government wants to achieve by insisting on forcefully taking native farm lands from rural farmers and giving out same to other farmers or cattle breeders when it could conveniently purchase land and convert them to ranches. Ranching is the modern way of rearing cattle and the only panacea to the frequent clashes between herdsmen and farmers. It is therefore irrefutable that those behind the grazing routes have ulterior motives which will only exacerbate the problem.
We wish to remind the federal government that the good people of the South East have in various fora, vehemently objected to the mapping out of cattle grazing routes in any part of the South East under any guise. The pan-Igbo socio-political organisation, Ohaneze Ndi Igbo has made it known on several occasions that no farmland would be carved out in any part of Igboland as grazing route. The South East caucus at the National Assembly also dissociated itself from the National Grazing Reserve Bill when it was mentioned in the National Assembly and the South East and South South State Assembly legislators met in Owerri in 2016 and passed a resolution objecting to the creation of grazing routes in any parts of the South East and South South zones.
The unity of this great nation has been tasked severally and it will be unprofitable for a group to pursue hegemonic tendencies by ignoring the sensibilities of others and seek to implement policies that divide instead of unite the different nationalities. We still maintain our position that the grazing routes would only be a catalyst to a conflate