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Does the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have a Minister? This is the question on the lips of FCT residents, as herdsmen have turned the seat of power into ‘Federal Cattle Territory’.
The herdsmen, who engage in open grazing in all nooks and crannies of Abuja including the National Stadium, causing hold-up in major highways, not sparing the popular Airport Road, do so with impunity.
Perhaps, to people residing along the Airport Road Axis, which is the entry and exit points of VIPs, the only function of the FCT Minister Mohammed Bello is to accompany and welcome back President Muhammadu Buhari from the airport.
Personally, I’ve seen cattle and herdsmen in my street severally and fear would not make one challenge them, knowing full well that doing so would be disastrous. Recently, a colleague’s side mirror was damaged by a cow on his way home from work and attempts to call the herdsman to order was met with resistance, as the Fulani herdsman allegedly threatened to ‘kill’ the reporter because his ‘brother is in power’.
Apparently, he was referring to President Muhammadu Buhari, also of the Fulani stock.
The above incident didn’t happen in an obscure town but in the nation’s capital, Abuja.
To say that herdsmen have literally taken over the major highways, including residential areas, gardens and the business area of the FCT is an understatement.
Apart from herdsmen, the city is plagued with darkness most times as the streets lights are non-functional, abysmal environmental sanitation, hawkers using pedestrian bridges in the territory for their commercial activities, indiscriminate parking of vehicles, increase in illegal motor parks and activities of commercial sex workers.
Workers of Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and the FCT Task Team on Environment under the minister’s control feed fat on taxpayer’s money, leaving FCT residents to their fate.
It therefore, didn’t come as a surprise last week when the Senate Committee on FCT ordered the arrest and slaughtering of cows caught grazing openly or with an option of N50,000 fine per cow or both.
The order was handed down during a meeting of the Committee with the FCT Minister and officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).
Chairman of the committee, Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West) who presided over the session lamented that he had been inundated with complaints of open grazing around the nation’s capital.
Beyond the order, I believe the senator should have done better by facilitating the passage of the ranching bill currently before the Red Chamber.
Since the National Ranches Commission (Establishment etc) Bill 2016, which passed First Reading in June, nothing has been heard about it.
Sponsored by Barnabas Gemade (APC, Benue North-East), the proposed legislation aims at committing the Federal Government into ranching business in the country. If passed into law, it will prohibit open grazing and compel those with cows to keep them in one place instead of moving them from one place to another for the purpose of grazing, which is the cause of the incessant farmers/herdsmen clashes and has witnessed the destruction of many lives and properties over the years.
In another development, the upper legislative chamber adopted the report of the ad-hoc committee on the harmonisation of the resolutions on the state of the economy.
Key among the resolution is the rejection of sale of national assets, while urging the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to harmonise the Federal Government’s financial and monetary policies as one of the ways to end the current economic recession. The upper legislative chamber also enjoined the Executive to urgently negotiate external concessionary borrowing to finance aspects of deficit in the 2016 Appropriation Act.
According to the Senate Plan which will be officially transmitted to President Buhari by Senate President Bukola Saraki and other leaders of the federal legislature anytime from now, the fiscal and monetary authorities must harmonise all policies that lower interest rates for investors in the real sector and small/medium scale farmers.
Succour came the way of women’s rights activists last week when the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill passed the crucial Second Reading.
The Bill, which seeks to promote the importance of women in the Nigerian society, was re-introduced for its First Reading on June 15th, 2016, after a previous version was shot down in March.
Speaking on the passage of the second reading of the Bill, Saraki said the passage of the GEO Bill was a clear indication that the 8th Senate is a gender-friendly institution. The Senate President, who referred the Bill to the Committee on Judiciary for further action, called on members of the committee to act promptly on the proposal.
By the same token, the Senate has commenced probe of the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, mobile telecommunications company – MTN – and four banks for illegally moving out $13.92billion out of Nigeria. The amount, which it said, is over 50percent of the country’s External Reserves, was repatriated out of Nigeria between 2006 and 2016 with the assistance of four banks.
This followed a motion moved by Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West).
While presenting documents to the Senate to back up his allegations, Melaye raised the alarm that Enelamah’s company – CELTELCOM – was allegedly involved in illegal repatriation of funds before he became a minister in November 2015.
Consequently, the legislative body mandated its Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions to carry out a holistic investigation into the matter and report back in two weeks.
Eight bills from the House of Representatives were also considered for concurrence. They include: Telecommunication and Postal Offences Act (Amendment) Bill, National Crop Varieties, Livestock Breeds (Registration) Act (Amendment) Bill, Produce (Enforcement of Export Standards) Act (Amendment) Bill, Prevention of Crimes Act (Amendment) Bill, Water Resources Act (Amendment) Bill, National Agricultural Land Development Authority Act (Amendment) Bill, Bee (Import Control and Management) Act (Amendment) Bill and Agricultural and Rural Management Training Act (Amendment) Bill.
Owede Agbajileke
