Ban On Open Grazing By Govs: Afenifere Endorses Move, Says Ban Be Immediate

The foremost pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, has thrown its full weight behind the declaration of a total ban on open grazing by governors of the 17 states in the southern part of Nigeria.

Afenifere’s position was as contained in a statement by the acting leader of the organization, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the Bajulaye of Ile-Ife.

According to the leader, “Afenifere is in total support of the position of these governors, belated as it was. As the saying goes, it is better late than never.”

According to him, when Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State enacted the law against open grazing and he was being vilified left and right by the Fulani herders, was when these governors ought to have stood up with him.

It could be recalled that when Ortom was being attacked for enacting the law and he ran to President Muhammadu Buhari, rather than giving him the necessary backing, the President asked him to go and make peace with those who were harassing his people. A similar thing occurred when Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State gave a related order in his state.

“That was when other governors should have stood up and speak with one voice. They ought to remember the saying: an injury to one is an injury to all. Their failure to do so then was what gave the herders the audacity to spread their dastardly act to other states to the extent of openly daring the governors.”

Adebanjo who commended the governors for their present stand expressed the hope that they would back their declaration with necessary actions.

“Now that the governors have woken up, it is hoped that they would put all necessary machinery in motion to ensure that open grazing is stopped with immediate effect in all the states, particularly in the south. Open grazing is anachronistic, it is obsolete, it is no longer fashionable” he declared.

He added further that those who may be opposed to the move should be ignored ‘as they are enemies of progress and peaceful co-existence’.
At the end of their meeting in Asaba, Delta State, on Tuesday, governors of the states in the southern part of the country outlawed open grazing in their respective states.

In recent years, there have been a lot of clashes between farmers and cattle herders due to destruction that the latter were causing on the farms. When farmers protested, they were often molested sometimes to the point of being maimed or killed, while their women or daughters were raped.
Lately, kidnappers pretended to be cattle herders to perpetrate their evil deeds. It was in an attempt to put a stop to these that made the governors to outlaw open grazing.