From the foundation of the world, there has been power play and the struggle for dominance. Some elements would always want to be above others and dictate the pace of things.
Sometimes, these struggles are not just among mortals. There are cases where mortals have struggled to, if possible, overthrow their Creator. But such ambitions have always hit the rock.
It was for this reason that the Psalmist wondered aloud, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?”
He also said: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”
The power play in Nigeria is all about politics and the crave to control the nation’s resources. The principle of ‘live and let live’ appears to have no meaning in a country where some people are hooked on the “entitlement”’ opium.
Since Tuesday, May 11, 2021 when the Southern governors under the aegis of Southern Governors’ Forum rose from their meeting in Asaba, Delta State, where they outlawed open grazing, the North has been unsettled.
Whereas the Forum has been harvesting plaudits for the epoch-making event and far-reaching decisions, the Northern establishment has taken exception to the development.
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) had the following day accused the Southern governors of playing politics with the security situation in the south.
Emmanuel Yawe, ACF national publicity secretary, who spoke for his association, said: “They’re playing politics. I wouldn’t say they’re intimidated, maybe they do not want to offend what appears to be the feelings of the youths of the South.
“Some youths want to push through an agenda and see the governors as an obstacle to whatever agenda they want to push either to secede or antagonise the North and so in order to save their skin, they (governors) wouldn’t want to be seen to be attacking what the youths are doing even though they know it’s not correct, so I think they are just trying to save their skin,” he said.
Yawe said some of the points presented by the southern governors in their communique were not new and had long been accepted by the ACF.
“They spoke about restructuring and open grazing. On the issue of open grazing, at our last National Working Committee meeting in Kaduna, the national leader of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria spoke against open grazing, they want government to create ranches and they’re willing to go into ranching.”
By the same token, the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) said it was critically studying the recommendations and resolutions of the southern governors banning open grazing and calling on President Buhari to convene a national dialogue.
Speaking through Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, its director of publicity and advocacy, NEF described the meeting of the governors as a “serious development in the context of current issues facing the country.”
“We’ve noted some of the recommendations, some of the resolutions of the meeting. The Northern Elders’ Forum will submit them to very critical scrutiny. At this stage, we’d advise that the North should react very carefully to these types of developments and not read other meanings into them or react to what they see as manifestations of either hostilities or provocations,” he said.
Baba-Ahmed said in the meantime, it was important to appeal to northerners living in the southern parts of the country to remain calm and law abiding.
He called on southern governors to continue to protect northern communities living in the south.
“We have a right to be worried about this because every inch of Nigeria is our concern. Even though we are northerners, we believe that local leadership should take the lead in protecting citizens and the integrity of the Nigerian state,” he said.
The southern governors’ decisions, itemised in a 12-point communiqué, also drew the ire of Mohammed Ali Ndume, a former Senate Majority leader.
Ndume, who is also the chairman, Senate Committee on Army, believes that the Southern governors deviated from the issue by banning open grazing of cattle in all 17 states of the South. He accused the governors of engaging in a blame game, which according to him, cannot solve the problem.
“As far as I am concerned, this blame game will not solve the problem. Governors are the chief security officers of their states, so, why are they talking about the President without talking about themselves? The governors are deviating from the matter,” he said.
Ndume believes that “The problem is not about open grazing. The problem is security. Most of the insecurity problems confronting Nigeria are not in the bush.
We have four different types of security challenges. We have the insurgency in the Northeast, IPOB through the Eastern Security Network is creating insecurity in the Southeast, there is banditry in the Northwest. It is only in the North Central that we have issues of farmers-herders clashes. There is less problem in the Southwest except for the clashes between the herdsmen and farmers and the agitators for Yoruba nation. Similarly, in the South-South, they are trying to instigate the Avengers, but so far the area is peaceful.”
By the same token, Usman Yusuf, a professor, and a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), fumed that the Southern governors did not consult Fulani leaders before making the ‘No Grazing’ regulation.
Yusuf, speaking on AIT breakfast show, Kakaaki, said: “Southern governors must provide land for Fulani bandits to graze their cattle if they want to ban open grazing. Gathering in one hotel and giving a blanket ban is irresponsible.”
Alhassan Saleh, the national secretary of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, was livid with anger, calling the ban an empty policy.
According to him, “The governors are confused and mischievous; are herders the problem of this country? Are they IPOB killing people up and down, burning police stations?”
Similarly, Khalil Mohammed Bello, national president of Kulen Allah Cattle Rearers Association of Nigeria (KACRAN), said the ban on open grazing negates the 1999 constitution.
“We, therefore, reject the ban on the movements of cattle peacefully to any other part of the country,” he said, adding that the decision taken by the governors on open grazing was uncalled for.
The Plateau State Chairman of Miyyeti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Nura Muhammad said: ‘’It is never a good idea at all. What do you want the grazers to do? To carry their cows on their heads and start running? It should have been a gradual process. They should know that they are igniting conflicts to occur, which we are not advocating. They must give time.
It is a compulsory thing to give them time. I am sure, they did not contact or consider the Fulani herders before taking their decision.”
Miyetti Allah Chairman in Bauchi, Sadiq Ibrahim Ahmed said the call was a signal that Nigeria was heading towards disintegration.
According to him, “This is a simple calculation, I have said it that we are heading to breaking up of Nigeria. The rulers are no longer interested in the people. Fulani people should move out from there –it is very simple.”
Tanko Yakasai, elder statesman, said the ban was not necessarily binding on the Federal Government. The founding member of Arewa Consultative Forum said: “Nobody can enforce its position on another person in Nigeria”.
Although Yakasai was in support of the governors’ demand for alternative measures to address the spate of insecurity in the country, he however urged the leaders to clearly spell out in affirmation, the kind of alternative measure they require from the Federal Government.
“It is unfortunate the advocates of restructuring have failed to clearly clarify in specific terms what they mean by restructuring. In white and black, what does restructuring Nigeria mean? Well, as for me, I want to believe there are provisions in the Constitution for whatever anybody wants.
Why can’t we take the advantage of that position to either amend or change the Constitution to suit our desires? But it is important to know that we are in a democracy and the principle is simple. It says the minority can have their say but the majority will have their ways,” he said.
But, Rotimi Akeredolu, who acted as an ad-hoc chairman of the Southern Governor’s Forum at the Asaba meeting, has since shrugged off the Northern rage when he appeared on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily.
He insists that “It is not an entirely new issue; most of the governors have placed a ban on open grazing in their states before the meeting. We looked at what is happening in our respective states. Most of the states have passed laws on open grazing. Virtually all of us have passed that law.
“We felt that this open grazing must stop. It is causing a lot of problems particularly between the herders and the farmers. Whether we like it or not, times have changed and this must change. We must adopt a modern system of animal husbandry. In this day and age, they cannot continue taking cows by foot from Kano to Port Harcourt.”
Commending the Southern Governors’ decisions, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State declared that any Nigerian who opposes the position of the southern governors on the ban on open grazing of cattle has a hidden agenda.
He wondered why some governors are opposed to the development in the south, since they had been having series of similar meetings in the north without anybody challenging them.
Ortom said that the Southern governors had toed a right path towards addressing insecurity in the country, adding that open grazing was no longer feasible in the country due to development and population growth.
He explained that with the great potentials in the country, no Nigerian should be poor if only there was guaranteed security for lives and property and that the people are allowed to remain stable in their localities to explore opportunities in farming and other ventures.
In a viral video on social media, Aisha Yesufu, a socio-political activist, mocked some northern elements who are castigating the Southern governors for taking the decisions at their meeting.
Yesufu said: “There is so much insolence and disrespect in this country, honestly. I see some people coming out to say the Southern governors do not have the right to make decision for A,B,C,D.
The decisions that you had, that you’ve made as Northern governors, what rights do you have to make them? So, the Southern governors suddenly do not have a right to make laws for the people in their own states, but the Northern governors have the right?
