September 07, (THEWILL) – The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has decried the anti-open grazing law recently enacted by some states warning it will worsen cattle rustling and undermine the stability of the country.
The group, who described anti-open grazing law as satanic and ploy to cripple economic activities of pastoralists, called on the President Muhammadu Buhari and National Assembly to intervene in the matter saying the law was a violation of the 1999 constitution.
MACBAN Secretary-General, Saleh Alhassan made the comment during a press conference in Abuja.
“The National Assembly and Mr President should intervene and stop the current attempts by some state governments to criminalise our means of livelihood of cattle-rearing through enacting of satanic and obnoxious laws they call Anti-Grazing Law.
“The Federal Government should create a ministry for livestock and fisheries as obtainable in many African countries. Nigerians should adopt strategies in responding to changes of climate change as it affects livestock production not negative laws”, he said.
Alhassan noted that anti-open grazing laws would destroy livestock production and send millions who depend on the livestock value chain into poverty.
The Miyetti Allah leader also called on the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to take an inventory of grazing reserves in the country and fully develop at least one grazing reserve in each senatorial zone.
He appealed to the National Assembly to rescue the pastoralists by resuscitating and passing the Grazing Reserves Commission Bill and other livestock management bills initiated by the previous assembly.
While referencing the African Union and ECOWAS Protocols/regulation of pastoralists and trans humans, the MACBAN spokesman asked the Nigerian government to domesticate the law in the country.
According to him, if the protocols are properly documented and implemented, it will effectively tackle the scourge of illegal migration in Nigeria.
Alhassan’s remarks come four months after the Southern Governors Forum announced a ban on open grazing of cattle across states in the region.
The governors after meeting in Asaba, the Delta State capital, asked President Buhari to address Nigerians on the state of the nation.
It also met months later and instructed states in the region to enact anti-open grazing laws in their domain to curb incessant clashes between herders and farmers.
Meanwhile, Chairman of South South Governors Forum and governor of Delta State, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, in his reaction to the call by the MACBAN, said, the group had only displayed its ignorance of the law.
Okowa, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Olisa Ifeajika, said: “That shows their level of education and knowledge of the law. National Assembly will tell governors to stop making laws to govern their states. Where is that one in the constitution?
“Governors are making laws to govern their states, a group is saying it wants to go to the National Assembly to asked governors to stop making laws to govern their states? It demonstrates their level of knowledge and understanding of laws of this country. ’’
”Well, let’s see how far they will go with it. I don’t see any governor who will be ready to join issues with them. Governors are heads of their states; so if they are making laws for the good governance of their states, the National Assembly should stop them?
“May be they will create their own National Assembly. Anyway, anything happens in this country these days. The governors have the right to make laws for the good governance of their states. They are protected and empowered within the ambit of the Constitution of this land.
“So, they that want to contest it, let us see how far they will go. My governor is not ready to join issues with them at all in anyway. I don’t see the National Assembly asking governors not to make laws to govern their states.
“The governors are not trying to make laws to change any federal law; they are to make laws for the good governance of their states and they are entitled to that within the law. I don’t know how they see the National Assembly! To even contemplate it alone, is abnormal.”
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