…Accuses FG of crafting divisive policies
The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has disclosed its rejection of the federal government’s National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) as approved by the National Economic Council (NEC) recently.
The Forum in a statement signed by Yinka Odumakin – South West, Prof Chigozie Ogbu – South East, Senator Bassey Henshaaw – South South and Dr. Isuwa Dogo – Middle Belt accused the federal government of plot to use the collective resources of Nigerians to convert herdsmen majority of whom were non-Nigerians from nomadic to sedentary lifestyles while doing their private business that had nothing to do with the rest of the citizens beyond being their market saying that “It is akin to government making budgetary allocations to Coca Cola to produce drinks to sell to Nigerians.”
The Forum added that apart from the plan not making any economic sense for the country, there was the issue of citizenship which the unthoughtful exposition of Bauchi Governor, Bala Mohammed that Fulanis from all over Africa were going to benefit from the scheme lend credence to.
It quoted the Bauch State Govenor as saying, “The Fulani man is a global or African person. He moves from Gambia to Senegal and his nationality is Fulani…So we cannot just close our border and say the Fulani man is just a Nigerian.”
SMBLF queried, “So why are we closing our border with Benin Republic where there are many people of Yoruba origin there? Are Igbos who are aborigines in Haiti to come to Nigeria without consular services? What is the contribution of those Fulani imports to the development of Nigeria to come and live on our resources when our citizens are the poorest on earth? Why is it difficult to apply common sense in our inter-ethnic relations in Nigeria?”
It argued that the above showed clearly that NLTP would only escalate the clashes between the indigenous communities and cattle settlers as experiences in Southern and Middle Belt areas of Nigeria had shown that the Fulani imports do not assimilate into the ways of lives of Nigerians in those parts of the country where they reside as they live apart from the locals and set up communities with alien culture that disrupts the cultural flow of the indigenes.
“The subterfuge of the whole deal is exposed in that while government officials deceive Nigerians that the plan will stop open grazing for ranching, option 1 in it provides for the establishment of corridors for migrant cattle with feeding and watering points along the routes. This is as stark as the lie that “livestock” includes other sources of meat .The entire plan is about cattle and herdsmen.
“We therefore do not accept deception and are more persuaded to accept the declaration by SSA Media to the President, Mallam Garba Shehu who dismissed the distinction between NLTP and RUGA by VP Yemi Osinbajo as a mere semantic game.
“We do not accept the policy and we ask the federal government to allow those who are in cattle business establish ranches on their own under the guidelines and laws of the host state, it stated.
The Forum further pointed out that another conquest agenda in sync with NLTP was the vexatious Executive Bill titled “A Bill for An Act to Establish a Regulatory Framework for the Water Resources Sector in Nigeria, Provide for the Equitable and Sustainable Redevelopment, Management, Use and Conservation of Nigeria’s Surface Water and Groundwater Resources and for Related Matter.”
It believed that the bill sought to abrogate all existing laws and institutions governing the management and control of water resources nationwide and replace them with new ones in a manner that gave the President, through the Minister of Water Resources, the power to control the nation’s rivers (especially those that pass through more than one state), lakes and underground water.
SMBLF quoted the bill as saying, ”All surface water and groundwater wherever it occurs, is a resource common to all people, the use of which is subject to statutory control. There shall be no private ownership of water but the right to use water in accordance with the provisions of this Act.”
“The Waterways Bill is another land-grabbing move like RUGA by ethnic supremacists who are working against the unity of the country. Major rivers in Nigeria can be made available, by Federal law if the bill is passed to Fulani pastoralists and there is nothing the indigenous people within such vicinities can do about it. The Police and the security agencies will be handy to enforce it and it will be another White farmers versus the African landowners scenario in Southern Africa during the Apartheid season.
“It is a recipe for unending armed conflicts. It also means the federal government can, wherever it identifies a large body of underground water (aquifers), decide to open a “Federal” water scheme and no one can stop Fulani cattle owners from taking over such places.
The “all people” in the bill also means that Pastoralists from any part of Africa as explained by Bauchi Governor can come and settle along the lush waterways of the Middle Belt and Southern protected by Nigeria’s Federal law to the detriment of indigenes who have for centuries depended on their natural resources for their livelihood”, it argued.
SMBLF however called on all lawmakers from the South and Middle Belt to resist the bill as it shall be keenly interested in developments around it.
Photo: Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.
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