Azubuike Ihemeje
It’s no longer news that President Muhammadu Buhari has already set up a Committee headed by one academic Professor in this Nigeria, ostensibly, with the sole objective to quickly reactivate and restore the defunct system of Grazing Routes in Nigeria.
First, this move is a flagrant violation of the Constitution and the Land Use Act, all of which are subsisting laws of the country.
To be clear, the Land Use Act is made pursuance to the Constitution, which Buhari sworn to protect and uphold. And they say that the Constitution is the ground norm and is supreme above every body, thing, and every other laws or even your Buhari Grazing Committee.
Put more succinctly; the Land Use Act
had vested all the lands in Nigeria to the various Governors of each State as the sole owners, which they hold in Trust for the benefit of all Nigerians.
This means that by our laws as at today, it’s only a Governor that has the legitimacy to set up any committee to enquire or do anything else with regards to lands and acquisition or use of same.
Nobody! Not even a trillion Buhari can exercise such legal powers.
Na only your Governor ooh!
The Land Use Act is still subsisting and nd the Constitution is still alive and in force.
Yet, Buhari has set out one of your Professors; I mean one of those ones that sold handouts and books for you to read and copy for exams. Na them!
Everything is finished already!I know how things happen here.
Before you realize it, Malami will generate one Executive Order, pursuant to Committee recommendation, for Buhari to sign.
Crisis continues..
Everybody is now minding their business. Social media users are busy distracted with BBN stories and gossip of dragging.
Things are going on swiftly. Tomorrow we’ll start crying.
Your foods and physical security is tied to this Committee. As can be observed, food supply insecurity, environmental degradation, stunted economic growth and distorted national integration are some of the problems the country is today contending with.
These problems stem both from the skirmishes that occurred between herders and farmers as pasturing and roaming animals intrude on farmlands and watering points for free pasture, as farmers equally resist cattle rearers for destroying their farms.
Other countries had already adopted Ranching policies and regulations and have benefited greatly from the economic activities and boasts it guarantees, plus security achievements.
But here, we’re struggling with our ancestors. We’re plagued with ignorance and sheer lack of knowledge.
We’re also grappling with Buhari who from all indications, doesn’t seem to care about the constitution and Nigeria lands regime as at now.
Open Grazing poses serious danger to modern life and society, in many ways than few. As precious human and animal lives are lost and crop yields damaged, food security is not only being hampered but precious manpower to support economic growth is reduced.
Again as the animals are taken round through the open grazing system, they do not only pollute a few water sources available to the local people but also by their destructive activities, they bring their breeders and the settled farming communities into conflicts that heighten inter ethnic tensions in the country.
As all these happen, several analysts are of the view that there is ominous danger to national integration. And overall sustainability of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is in severe danger.
More so, these happenings are perceived by people in the south and North Central regions of the Nigeria, as signs of failure, imperialism and favoritism by Buhari to his tribesmen, the Fulani,over other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.
They say, Buhari is playing politics of Proximity too much. I won’t explain plenty details of the meaning of that one.
Open grazing clashes have become more violent and bloody when, in recent times, pastoralists or herders who normally went about only with sticks began to carry deadly weapons like automatic guns such as AK47 with which they freely attacked their host communities, killing many people in the process.
And to compound the situation and exacerbate the wahala further, we now have a committee headed by your Professor to restore Grazing Routes in a 21st century country.
This is an affront and a violation to our laws right now.
I’ve said my own, for sake of posterity.
