Few days after the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said that banning open grazing in the south is like banning spare parts trading in the north, President Muhammadu Buhari has also stressed that the governors’ ban in their respective states 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)…”
Chijioke Okoli, SAN:
“We seem to have forgotten that the Northern Governors Forum and especially Governor Ganduje have repeatedly called for an end to open grazing in the country, especially in the South. But the Presidency kept mute to those calls. It has now found its voice in a pathetic attempt to intimidate those southern governors. But it lacks the capacity because in the eyes of reasonable people, the Buhari Presidency has become denuded of legitimacy with groups even within its base or constituency calling for the President’s resignation or impeachment.
Kunle Edun, lawyer:
“Cattle rearing is a private business just like any other business. If some states can ban alcohol without the Federal government making any statement on it, why take an opposing position on the ban on open grazing which some states in the North, Arewa group and even herders association have all said earlier that open grazing is outdated and has caused alot of calamities? I think this is politics taken too far and should not be encouraged by all true patriots of Nigeria.
Ajibola Basiru, SAN:
“Well, President Buhari obviously has a different constitution from the rest of us. He is definitely not referring to the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, as there is certainly no provision therein that allows one person or group to openly enter and graze their cattle on other people’s lands.”
Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN:
The northern elites, including Malami missed the point sorely when they compared Igbo peaceful spare parts dealers who go about their normal business legitimately, (building or renting their shops), with savage, maniacal AK-47-wielding herdsmen.
“Igbo traders do not kill or attack northerners with their stock of motor tyres, rims, spanners or chassis. They do not pour petrol from fuel tanks that they sell, on Fulani herdsmen. They do not use car bumpers or wind shields to smash the heads of herdsmen. How does open and street grazing of cows by fully armed foot-patrolling youth which is now clearly anachronistic, primitive and antiquated, be likened to legitimate spare parts business being carried out in shops or designated areas, with the Igbo traders paying tenement rate, taxes, water electricity and light bills?”
Have you ever heard of any herder paying tax?
“How do you equate spare parts dealers with mindless violence unleashed on poor helpless and hapless farmers in their own farms, and destruction of their crops with reckless abandon by these rampaging nomadic pastoralists who are on a mission of conquest and expansionism?
“Freedom of movement is only for human beings. It is not for cattle, sheep and goats. Will the Northerners tolerate the open sale of alcoholic beverages in their states, even though it is the constitutional right of other ethnic groups to move about and sell beverages of their choice? Are these Northern elites seriously arguing that Southern State Governors cannot ban open grazing in their states, to protect their innocent citizens from deadly killer herdsmen?”
“The 17 southern governors should immediately sue the Federal Government, invoking the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under section 232 of the 1999 Constitution. They should ask for a determination of their right to preserve their states from insecurity and the state assemblies should quickly back open grazing bans through instrument of law.”