There Is No Going Back On Anti-Grazing law in Ekiti - Fayose Replies Defence Minister

Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, says the call by Mansur Dan Ali, minister of defence, that states should suspend the implementation of the anti-grazing law is an affront to federalism practised in the country. The minister made the call at a security meeting with President Muhammadu on Tuesday.

He said there was need to negotiate safe routes for the herders.

“The need to employ other channels with the affected states to reduce tension by suspending the implementation of the anti-open grazing law while also negotiating safe routes for the herders,” Gusau, spokesman of the minister, quoted Dan-Ali as saying.

But in a series of tweets on Tuesday, Fayose wondered why it is difficult for the federal government to support cattle ranching.

The governor said the federal government should be concerned with finding a way of taking the herdsmen out of the bush in view of giving them a better a better life through ranching.

“Call by the FG through the minister of defence, Dan-Ali that states should suspend implementation of the anti-grazing law is an affront on federalism that is practised in Nigeria. It is amazing that at the level of the presidency, they still see states as appendages of the FG,” he tweeted.

“January this year, the minister of defence blamed passage of anti-grazing law in some states as the cause of killings by herdsmen. Today, he is still singing the same song. Is there something to this old system of nomadic cattle rearing that they are not telling Nigerians?

“Why is @MBuhari not rearing his cows through open grazing? Why is it so difficult for the FG to support cattle ranching? Here in Ekiti, the anti-open grazing law stays. It is the presidency that should stop looking the other way while herdsmen go about killing Nigerians.

“Me thinks the Presidency should be concerned about how to take the herdsmen out of the bush and give them decent life by embracing cattle ranching. How can anyone be pleased subjecting his own people to a life of following cows through the bush from Yobe to Lagos?”