Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has kicked against the practice of open grazing as directed by President Muhammad Buhari.
The governor, while addressing the audience at a June 12 Memorial Lecture in Akure, doubted the workability of the system used in the First Republic, insisting that things had changed.
Recall that President Buhari in an interview on Arise TV on Thursday, said he had directed Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, to begin the process of recovering land from persons who had converted cattle grazing routes for their personal use.
But, Akeredolu pointed out that cattle grazing routes do not reflect the demands of a 21st-century development in cities and states.
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“Where we are now, the Dome, something was here before, so now are we going to bring it back and reinstate what was here before?” Mr Akeredolu asked rhetorically.
“Or where the Deji of Akure’s Palace is now, you say that it is a grazing route and we have to remove the palace for grazing route? We can’t do that now.
“Things are changing and there has to be a paradigm shift.
“Ethiopia has about 200 million cattle and you won’t see them on the streets. They are located in the hinterlands designated for grazing.”
The President had during the Interview, also claimed that the AK-47 bearing killers herdsmen are not Nigerians, arguing that Nigerian herders do not bear guns but sticks or machetes.
And with this comment from the President, many Nigerians are wondering how porous the nation’s borders have become and how insecured the country is at the moment with the Commander-in-Chief indirectly admitting that his government cannot stop criminals from entering from neigbouring countries to cause mayhem.
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