Joseph Bakare
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), has backed the move by the Muhammadu Buhari administration to suspend existing anti-open grazing laws in states.
The Association was reacting to the resolve reached by Federal Government after the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, urged the government to “employ other channels with the affected states to reduce tension by suspending the implementation of the Anti-Open Grazing Law while also negotiating safe routes for the herders.”
The governments of Ekiti, Benue and Taraba had previously passed anti-open grazing laws in their states to check the killings by suspected Fulani herdsmen which have become widespread in the country.
Commenting on the Federal Government’s call for the suspension of the laws, the group said it wasn’t surprised by the move as the “federal government cannot sit back and allow these killings and crisis to continue.”
The Taraba State Chairman of MACBAN told reporters that, “This decision is not coming to us as a surprise. This is what we had expected even the state government to do long before now. It is unfortunate that all our efforts to make the state governor see reasons did not work.
“It is true that the law was duly passed by the state Assembly but the federal government cannot sit back and allow these killings and crisis to continue. They have to do something.
“I have always said that the crisis in Taraba is political and ethnoreligious and not about farmers and herdsmen. And so to end the crisis, the state government must sit down with the key stakeholders to address the issue. The problem now is that, people hide under the law to attack others and then blame it on the Fulanis”, Tukur said