September 19, (THEWILL) – Last Thursday’s meeting of the Southern Governors’ Forum in Enugu was an eye-opener, in respect of the implementation of the anti-open grazing law they all committed to passing before the September 1, 2021 deadline.
Coming after their second meeting in Lagos on July 5, where the September 1 deadline was set for the 17-member states to enact the anti-open grazing law, three renegade states, namely, Edo, Imo and Anambra showed their true colours. Edo and Imo sent representatives to the meeting, while Anambra stayed away. There was no representative from the gateway state of the South-East.
Nine Governors and seven deputies attended the meeting held at Enugu Government Lodge. They were Governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State; Babajide Sanwo-olu of Lagos State; Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State; Nyesom Wike of Rivers State; Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State; Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State and Douye Diri of Bayelsa State.
Others were Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State and his Akwa Ibom State counterpart, Emmanuel Udom.
Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State was represented by his deputy, Otunba Bisi Egbeyemi, while Seyi Makinde of Oyo State was also represented by his deputy, Rauf Olaniyan. Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State was represented by his deputy, Philip Shuaibu, while Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo state sent his deputy, Prof Placid Njoku, to represent him at the meeting.
While Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, however, attended the Lagos and the first meeting held in Asaba in May 25 and Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra appeared only in Asaba, their Imo counterpart had always sent a representative in the person of Prof Njoku.
Two of them have made no motion at all, not to talk of movement, with regard to enacting the law.
At least, Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State and the host governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, made a last minute face-saving move by signing their bills into law on the eve of the Thursday meeting in Enugu.
As at the time of the governors’ third meeting, all the states, except Edo, Imo and Anambra, have enacted the law on open grazing, although not all of them met the September deadline.
On the September 1 2021 deadline, the ban was in place in seven states, namely, Ebonyi, Abia, Bayelsa, Rivers, Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo States.
On that day, it was still in the legislative process in four states: Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Lagos, while the houses of assembly in Cross River, Osun and Ogun States, had passed the bill, awaiting their governors’ assent. The trio have now signed it.
The governors’ move to enact the law followed conflicts between farmers and herders, as well as attacks on farmers by criminal herders, leading to the death of at least 215 persons in southern Nigeria between January 2019 and August 2021, according to figures issued by the Nigerian Security Tracker (NST) of the Council of Foreign Affairs.
According to the data, among the states in the region, Ebonyi State has the highest number of deaths resulting from attacks by criminal herders between January 2019 and August, 2021, with 56 lives lost while one death was recorded each in Imo and Abia States.
Delta State follows Ebonyi with 40 deaths, while 32 and 29 deaths were recorded in Edo and Enugu States, respectively. The number of persons killed by herders in other southern states are as follows: Ogun 27, Oyo 19, Ondo 10, Ekiti 27, Osun 4, Akwa Ibom 3 and Anambra 6.
So the governors were not being alarmist in their position, particularly with the ongoing scenario in the Middle-Belt region of the country where 3,640 Nigerians have died from herders/farmers conflict between 2016 and 2018, according to the NST data,
Investigation by THEWILL shows that states which have defaulted on the anti-open grazing law are yoked by the same considerations: Political correctness and lack of the political will to enforce the law if enacted.
Until he clarified his position on the law on request by THEWILL, Imo State governor, Uzodinma, was made to appear as opposing it.
Mr Ogwuike Nwachuku, Chief Press Secretary to the governor, forwarded a most recent statement on the issue when contacted. In the statement Uzodinma, through his Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, said that, “contrary to insinuations, the state has an anti-open grazing law which became operative since 2006. The law provides for areas that are restricted from open grazing and herders have been abiding by it. The MoU the farmers and herders signed was to strengthen the existing law and it is working very well.”
Further investigation shows that Imo State has such a law. Named Law No.9, 2006, it was signed by Chief Achike Udenwa, a former governor of the state, on January 19, 2007.
According to the law, a herder who takes his cattle into cultivated land within Imo State is deemed to contravene section 3 and some of these laws and thereby liable to a fine of N50, 000. Section 4 of the law gives room for the payment of compensation to the owner of the farm to cover the total cost of crops destroyed by the cattle, in addition to a fine which may be prescribed by the magistrate court.
Even so, the citizens still harbour suspicion of every government move on the issue so much so that its recent effort to acquire land for the purposes of an Integrated Agricultural Project in Oguta Local Government Area of the state, is “highly suspected to be a subterfuge for the implementation of the widely rejected “Rural Grazing Area” (RUGA) in Nigeria designed to forcefully allocate people’s lands to Fulani herdsmen for their cattle businesses, thereby “ forcing traditional rulers, town union executives, the clergy, the elites and Agwa sons and daughters living at home and in the Diaspora to denounce the government during a zoom conference held on September 6 and 8, 2021.
They agreed that, “Should the government insist on the forceful takeover of the said land or any other land within the Agwa territory for the highly vexatious RUGA policy in any garb whatsoever it may be clothed, a legal team of all Agwa lawyers to be coordinated by Barr (Dr) Dom Akabuiro should initiate immediate legal proceedings to forestall such and/or seek appropriate redress in Court.”
While trouble brews in Imo, pending how the Imo State Government commits to the MoU that it facilitated with farmers and herders, Edo youths last week erupted in protest over their state government’s failure to enact an anti-open grazing law.
Last Tuesday, a group known as the New Nigeria Initiative, led by its chairman, Uwadiae Odigie, protested in Benin City, the state capital, and carried placards with various inscriptions, such as ‘The South-South Governors’ Forum on anti-opengrazing law will stand’ and ‘September 1, 2021 anti-open grazing law agreement must be enforced.’
Odigie had asked, “Now that many states within the South-South have responded to the September 1, 2021 deadline and the herdsmen are still ravaging our forests and highways with the fiercest brand of terrorism ever, with its attendant catastrophic consequences on our psyche, what is Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State waiting for?”
He said the group and stakeholders have mounted pressure without success on Marcus Onobun, the Speaker of Edo State House of Assembly, on the urgent need to pass the bill on the ban of open grazing in Edo State.
The governor’s hand, THEWILL found out, is tied. His heart is with his counterparts’ decision on the bill, but he will rock the boat if he passes such a law because certain powerful interests who run cattle business in the state will not allow it.
“The owners who are movers and shakers of Edo politics hire the herders to do the rearing business and think the current arrangement of the government will do the job,” a dependable source told this newspaper.
Attempts to reach the media aide to the governor, Mr Crusoe Osagie, failed as he failed to answer calls put through to his phone.
Recently Obaseki told journalists that the state government had set up a three-man committee across all the local governments in the state to address the incessant clashes between farmers and herders. He said, “We have set up systems in Edo State to check this. We are just going to reactivate those systems.
“Every local government area must have a committee to deal with herders and farmers crises. This committee must have a minimum of three representatives from Arewa community, Fulani and other dominant communities in the local government.
“On the other side, you will have representatives of traditional institutions and the security agencies, who are supposed to intervene whenever there is a crisis in those areas,” he said. That was before the forum’s decision on the law at the Asaba meeting, which he attended.
The Commissioner for Information in Anambra State, Mr C. Don Adinuba, thinks the state does not need the law because it has an arrangement in place that works perfectly.
He denied talk about pressure from Abuja, considering the upcoming governorship election where the ruling party, the All Progressive Grand Alliance, (APGA) had to tread carefully after it was factionalised and had to settle its governorship candidacy through the law court, as well as a brush with the presidency when a traditional ruler was reportedly suspended for paying a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari in the Villa. That ruler was shot dead along with his driver by gunmen in Awka, the state capital a fortnight ago.
When contacted, he told THEWILL, “There is no truth about pressure from anywhere. We have a standard in Anambra from what they have elsewhere. Over 80 per cent of cattle in Anambra are owned by indigenes under a system called ‘agabata ekee ‘. It is a form of joint business where you share profit on an agreed ratio, according to the financial input in the business. We also had a Cattle Management Committee in place before I became Commissioner in March 2018. It comprises the Commissioner of Police, the Director of DSS and members of other security outfits. They can levy a fine, depending on the extent of damage to crops by cattle.”
As Imo has cleared its position on the law, Edo and Anambra remain the only states that have defaulted on carrying out the Southern Governors’ Forum decision on open grazing.
According to the Chairman of the forum, Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, who read the communique at the end of their Enugu meeting on Thursday, the anti-open grazing law aligns with the uniform template and aspiration of the southern governors. “We encouraged the states that are yet to enact this law to do so expeditiously,” he said.
About the Author
Amos Esele is the Deputy Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
