The Chairman, Southern Governors Forum, Rotimi Akeredolu has berated presidential media aide, Garba Shehu for criticising the ban on open grazing in the Southern states.
In a Monday statement, Shehu said that the ban on open grazing was an act of “politicking”, even though the forum boasts members from the All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party and All Progressives Grand Alliance.
He also accused the governors of not proffering a solution to the frequent herdsmen-farmers clashes.
“The President had approved a number of specific measures to bring a permanent end to the frequent skirmishes as recommended by Alhaji Sabo Nanono, the Minister of Agriculture in a report he submitted and the President signed off on it back in April, well before the actions of the Southern Governors Forum which attempts to place a ban on open grazing and other acts of politicking intended by its signatories to demonstrate their power.
“It is very clear that there was no solution offered from their resolutions to the herder-farmer clashes that have been continuing in our country for generations.
“But the citizens of the southern states – indeed citizens of all states of Nigeria – have a right to expect their elected leaders and representatives to find answers to challenges of governance and rights, and not to wash their hands off hard choices by, instead, issuing bans that say: “not in my state.”
“It is equally true that their announcement is of questionable legality, given the Constitutional right of all Nigerians to enjoy the same rights and freedoms within every one of our 36 states (and FCT) -regardless of the state of their birth or residence.
“Fortunately, this declaration has been preempted, for whatever it is intended to achieve and Mr. President, who has rightly been worried about these problems more than any other citizen in consultation with farmers and herders alike, commissioned and approved an actionable plan of rehabilitating grazing reserves in the states, starting with those that are truly committed to the solution and compliant with stated requirements,” the presidential statement read in part.
Akeredolu, who is the Governor of Ondo State, reacted through his Senior Special Assistant on Special Duties, Doyin Odebowale.
The governor said that Shehu lacked the authority to make such policy statements for the Federal Government.
He also warned the presidential aide and his cohorts to desist from hurling insults at elected representatives of the people.
“Mr Garba Shehu just released a press statement purporting to represent the position of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, on the farmer-herder “clashes” and what he termed as “Deep Rooted Solutions” to the herdsmen attacks.
“He also attributed a unilateral decision to the President who clears the way for ranching and revival of forest reserves” as part of the permanent solution to the frequent clashes between them, as well as the associated problem of the gun-wielding killer-herdsmen.
“Anyone who has been following the utterances of this man, as well as his fellow travellers on the self-deluding, mendacious but potentially dangerous itinerary to anarchy cannot but conclude that he works, assiduously, for extraneous interests whose game plan stands at variance with the expectations of genuine lovers of peaceful coexistence among all the peoples whose ethnic extractions are indigenous to Nigeria.
“Mr Garba must disclose, this day, the real motive(s) of those he serves, definitely not the President. He cannot continue to hide under some opaque, omnibus and dubious directives to create confusion in the polity. The easy recourse to mendacious uppity in pushing a barely disguised pernicious agendum is well understood,” the statement read in part.