Benue not part of FG’s grazing reserve – Gov Ortom tells President Buhari

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State had on Friday sent a strong message to President Muhammadu Buhari to count Benue State out of the grazing reserves programme for which President Buhari has appointed a committee. Governor Ortom declared that there is no gazetted land or cattle route in Benue State; insisting that, therefore, the state is not part of the grazing reserves programme of the president.

Governor Ortom stated that President Buhari should be ready to kill all the inhabitants before he could actualise his cattle grazing agenda in Benue State.

The governor in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, noted that it has become clear to Nigerians that grazing reserves and cattle routes are the only projects that the President has for Nigeria; saying Benue is not interested in such a project. Besides, Benue State is among the few states in the north that there has never been any gazetted grazing route in the history of Nigeria.

President Buhari had during the week approved the recommendations of a committee to review “with dispatch,” 368 grazing sites, across 25 states in the country, “to determine the levels of encroachment.”

Governor Ortom expressed disappointment and shock at the statement of the presidency revealing the executive decision from Abuja by fiat to impose grazing reserves on states.

The Benue governor argued that the federal government has no constitutional right to appropriate lands for itself or anyone else for that matter, without the approval of State Governors.

According to Ortom, “The Land Use Act has made Governors the custodians of all lands in their states. Nigeria is practicing democracy, not despotism.”

The Governor decried the security crisis in the country, wherein hundreds of Nigerians are being killed by armed herdsmen, bandits, and other terrorists, “yet the President is only bothered about animals and their safety and deploying all machinery and arsenals of government, to impose grazing reserves and cattle routes on Nigerians,” which is unacceptable!

Ortom further declared: “It is now clear that the Presidency wants to plunge the country into an avoidable crisis. Otherwise, what is the justification for President Buhari’s insistence that grazing reserves be established across the country when Nigerians have openly kicked against the policy and have embraced ranching in place of open grazing?

“Millions of Nigerians have been displaced following attacks by armed herders and are currently suffering in IDP camps.”

The governor pointed out that Benue State, for instance, has over 1.5 million displaced persons, hundreds of thousands living in camps, and many more forced to flee their ancestral lands to stay under dehumanising conditions in the open fields.

Ortom also lamented: “The Buhari administration does not seem to be worried about the food crisis already ravaging the country as farmers have been chased into IDP camps by herders and children are dying of starvation, yet, what is more important to their President is the wellbeing of cows.”

Governor Ortom stated that the pitiable condition of the displaced people should be the preoccupation of the President whom Nigerians voted in 2015 and 2019; he regretted that it is unfortunate that the people’s love, trust, and votes for Mr. President are being rewarded with hate, cruelty, and dictatorial policies, aimed at grabbing their lands to donate to herders and cows.

The Benue Governor challenged the Presidency to name what the federal government has done to alleviate the plight of those displaced citizens by herdsmen in Benue State since 2018.

Ortom declared: “What is the difference between the Buhari administration’s approach to insecurity and the Taliban agenda in Afghanistan?

“It is now evident that the government at the centre prioritises the welfare of cattle over human beings and is bent on taking Nigeria back to the pre-colonial era.

“The country has been turned into a cow republic by the present administration.”

The governor reiterated that Nigeria has never been more divided on ethnic lines and sentiments, as it is under President Buhari.

Ortom noted that the President may not be aware that all the northern states, including his home state, Katsina, and the entire southern states, have unanimously rejected open grazing of livestock and approved ranching, saying that “the Presidency is whipping a dead horse on the issue of grazing reserves.”

The governor further observed: “We also read the President’s comments yesterday at the National Security Council meeting, where he threatened to sack Security Chiefs for what he termed failure to tackle insecurity in the country.

“Why won’t the Security Chiefs fail when the body language of the Commander-In-Chief points to a clan of sacred cows, who must be spared and given protection to perpetrate evil?

“How will the Security Chief succeed, when their formations are not well funded, and the soldiers are left to confront terrorists who have superior weapons?

“If Mr. President indeed made the statement attributed to him, he was not being fair to the security agencies.”

Ortom berated members of the committee, who recommended that grazing reserves be established in parts of the country, declaring that they are the real enemies of Nigeria.