During an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday, Minister for Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, left me bewildered and wondering if he still has his thinking faculty intact.
Malami, while speaking against the ban on open grazing by southern governors, went ahead to compare open grazing with spare-part trading.
He said the ban on open grazing in the South by southern governors is as good as the northern governors coming together to ban spare-part trading in the North.
Such comparison is nonsensical and coming from a man like Malami, who has attained a very senior position in the legal profession, it is very disappointing.
In fact, comparing open grazing with spare-part selling, whether in the southern or northern states, makes no sense because spare-part sellers do not terrorise Nigerians like herdsmen do.
However, the ban on open grazing by southern governors did not happen because they do not welcome herdsmen and the cattle business in their states, but due to issues of insecurity and terrorism carried out by herdsmen while openly grazing their cattle.
For some time now, insecurity has been a topical issue in the country. Some of the killing and kidnapping is orchestrated by herdsmen who move about with their cattle. While grazing openly, these herdsmen trespass on people’s farmlands, destroy their crops and still brutalise the owners of the properties if they dare to confront them. This has also resulted in the deaths of many people in the country.
According to the Global Terrorism Index, these conflicts resulted in over 800 deaths by 2015. In 2016, the people of Benue and Enugu States also had it hot from herdsmen. For Benue, I recall my older cousin, who participated in the National Youth Service scheme in Zaki-biam, narrating how some residents of the community were slaughtered by herdsmen on their own farmlands. She recounted how community residents who she knew personally and interacted often with became victims of fulani herdsmen.
Similar incidents also occurred in Taraba, Bayelsa, Kaduna, Ebonyi, Kogi, Delta and Anambra States, to mention a few.
In the Niger Delta, On Saturday, February 20, 2021 a man and his son were attacked and seriously wounded by herdsmen who trespassed on their farmland in the Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
Also in March, a news report had it that 22 persons were killed in Anambra and Enugu States by herdsmen. These and many other incidents justify the ban on open grazing by southern governors.
Looking at Malami’s comparison, one begins to wonder how and when spare-part business has contributed to terrorism in Nigeria.
When did spare-part traders cause the loss of many lives in any part of the country? When have Nigerians been threatened in their communities and homes due to spare-part business? These are questions Malami should have asked himself before making such a comparison.
*Reginald Tobin wrote in from Oyo State.
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