The Aare Ona Kakanfo, Iba Gani Adams, says the Federal Government’s unpopular policies such as insistence on recovering grazing routes for herders to graze their cattle across the country are driving the nation towards anarchy.
According to him, the Federal Government must stop “creating an unnecessary tension” in the land.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari recently ordered the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN to begin reviving grazing routes marked in the First Republic across the country.
However, some Southern leaders including popular human rights lawyer, Femi Falana SAN kicked the move, saying that grazing routes only existed in Northern Nigeria.
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The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has also stated that the identification and recovery of the grazing routes would commence despite opposition.
Reacting to the controversy on Saturday, Adams said presidential support for open grazing and efforts to revive grazing routes amounted to thwarting the collective will of Southern Nigeria.
He said grazing routes “cannot work because the entire Southern Nigeria has spoken and we are against open grazing; the governors in the region have banned it already and lawmakers have started enacting laws in their state assemblies to ban it.
“The Federal Government should recognise that we have three tiers of government and should not create an impression that every law is in the hands of the Federal Government. The issue of open grazing should be a state law and a local government law because it is about the security of the state.
“Open grazing has been constituting security threats and has caused a lot of deaths of citizens and this is giving Nigeria a very bad image before the international community. The Federal Government should go against anything which threatens lives and property of Nigerians. If it encourages anything that will create insecurity, then, those in government have hidden agenda towards Southerners.”
Adams added, “The Federal Government is driving the country to the point of anarchy and political instability by confronting the southern governors on the ban of open grazing. Open grazing is an insecurity of the highest order in the country.
“I don’t know why the President is bringing up an old law that was not even reflected in the 1999 Constitution. It is impossible for him to bring it up now. We will take a necessary position if that happens.”