Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has slammed President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the recommendations of a committee to review 368 grazing sites across 25 states in the country.
Reacting to the development on Friday, Governor Ortom wondered why Buhari can only be bothered about animals and their safety at a time that insecurity has continued to soar with thousands of people being killed.
He said the president has turned a blind eye to the unimaginable levels of encroachment on lands belonging to Nigerians by cattle because he placed more priority on the welfare of cattle than the people that voted him into office.
Ortom made this known in the statement issued and signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, titled, ‘Presidency turning Nigeria to a cow republic’.
“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!
He lamented that millions of Nigerians have been displaced following attacks by armed herders and are currently suffering in IDP camps adding that Benue State for instance has over 1.5 million displaced people with thousands living in camps and many more forced to flee their ancestral lands to stay under dehumanizing conditions in open fields.
“We expected the pitiable condition of the displaced people to be the preoccupation of the President whom they voted in 2015 and 2019. It is unfortunate that the people’s love, trust and votes for Mr President are being rewarded with hate, cruelty and dictatorial policies aimed at grabbing their lands to donate to herders and cows.
“We challenge the Presidency to name what it has done to alleviate the plight of those displaced by herdsmen in Benue State since 2018.
“But Buhari is not the first Fulani man to be President of this country. Nigeria had Presidents Shehu Shagari and Umaru Yar’Adua who were Presidents for all Nigerians and treated citizens of this country fairly and equitably.
“Our country has never been more divided on ethnic lines and sentiments as it is under President Buhari. Under President Shagari and President Yar’Adua, Nigerians were not chided by a horde of presidential spokesmen and social media hirelings for simply expressing their views on government policies.
“Perhaps Mr President is not aware that all the northern states including his home state Katsina and the entire southern states have unanimously rejected open grazing of livestock and approved ranching. The Presidency is therefore whipping a dead horse on the issue of grazing reserves.
Ortom who posited that the Land Use Act has made Governors the custodians of all lands in their states insisted that the Federal Government has no constitutional right to appropriate lands for itself or anyone else for that matter without the approval of State Governors.
“Nigeria is grappling with numerous security and economic challenges that should ordinarily worry the Presidency. The Federal Government introduced the National Livestock Transformation Plan, NLTP and Nigerians accepted the policy. Why has the Buhari administration dumped the programme and opted for grazing reserves and cattle routes?”
“Why won’t the Security Chiefs fail when the body language of the Commander-in-Chief points to a clan of sacred cows who must be spared and given protection to perpetuate evil?
“How will the Security Chief succeed when their formations are not well funded and the soldiers are left to confront terrorists who have superior weapons? If Mr President indeed made the statement attributed to him, he was not being fair to the security agencies.
“President Buhari’s spokesman Femi Adesina once asked Nigerians to choose between holding onto their lands or losing their lives. What is happening now is confirmation of that threat from the Presidency.
“They introduced Cattle Colonies, Ruga and National Water Resources Bill but Nigerians rejected all the policies. The latest push for grazing reserves and cattle routes is surely the final onslaught against majority of Nigerians who must be deprived of their God-given lands to accommodate foreign herdsmen moving into the country for the occupation agenda.
“The stand of the Governor is not personal; it is the collective decision of Benue people. There is no gazetted land or cattle route in Benue State. Our state should be counted out of the proposed grazing reserves programme.
“If President Buhari must actualize his cattle agenda in Benue State, he should be ready to kill all of us! We know that grazing reserves and cattle routes are the only project that the President has for Nigeria, but Benue is not interested in such a project.
“We are equally disappointed with members of the committee which recommended that grazing reserves be established in parts of the country. They are the real enemies of Nigeria. Theirs is hypocrisy of the highest order.
“Members of the committee should know that posterity will judge everyone according to their deeds here on earth. Above all, there is God. The Buhari administration will not be in power forever,” the statement concluded.
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