The former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu has urged State governments to convert unoccupied public lands to ranches for herders.
Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore -one of the herders groups in
Nigeria, says South-West governors, with their anti-herdsmen stance, create the problem for the All Progressives Congress chieftain, Bola Tinubu, and his
rumoured presidential ambition in 2023.
On Wednesday, the spokesman for the group, Saleh Alhassan,
while featuring on PUNCH Online interview programme, The Roundtable, said "I
sympathise with him (Tinubu) because if he says more than what he is saying,
they will say maybe he is pushing for his presidential ambition. That is why he
takes time before he even responds but I expected him to call all his political
godsons —who are governors — causing this confusion to order.
Of late, nomadic herders in parts of the country, especially
in the South-West geopolitical zone, have been accused of trespassing on
farmlands of host farmers with their cattle.
Farm produce worth millions of naira have been destroyed in
the last few months. Some herders have also been accused of raping women in
host communities, kidnapping the rich and, in some cases, killing host
residents, amongst other unprintable crimes.
Governors in the zone under the aegis of the South-West
Governors' Forum chaired by Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, have come up
with proposed solutions, including the prohibition of open grazing, night
grazing, under-age grazing, amongst others.
Many leaders in Yorubaland, including the leader of the
socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, have also said Tinubu was
afraid to speak on the herder's crisis because he does not want to jeopardise
his 2023 presidential ambition and because he does not want to offend the
President Muhammadu Buhari.
But the former Lagos State governor broke his silence on the
matter on March 13, 2021, in a statement, titled, 'Tinubu's Statement On The
Herder Crisis'.
In the statement made available to The PUNCH, the former
Lagos State governor urged state governments to convert unoccupied public lands
to ranches for herders.
Reacting to the proposed idea by Tinubu as a way of solving
the near-perennial farmers-herders crisis rocking the nation, the Miyetti Allah
spokesman lauded the idea but said the country was not yet ready to embrace or
implement "progressive solutions."
Alhassan said "He should call them and say, 'Hey, when I
become president, I will solve this problem for us' (and) not to create
problems for him, for his ambition."
When asked whether the farmers-herders crisis could affect
the political ambition of Tinubu, Alhassan alleged, "When you have a group
of people attacking citizens, does it translate to political love? When you
have the supposed Amotekun joining militants to attack traders in Shasha (in
Oyo State), burn their properties, does it give a good political value to
whoever wants to get support from those people?"
He also said the crisis was exaggerated to score political
points, adding that the Fulani herders who are of the same ethnic stock as the
President are not enjoying any particular preference or benefits from the
Buhari regime.
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