Grazing Law, Grazing Routes and Land Use Act

Arising from the Arise TV interview of PMB, his recent views on Open Grazing

are attracting a lot of comments.

Of note is PMB's preference for Grazing Routes as opposed to the recent pronouncements of the Southern Governors banning open Grazing.

I sympathize with PMB. He is supposed to be President for all Nigerians, but he is a Fulani and a cattle owner too.

Whereas it makes more sense to be a Fulani before being a Nigerian, Obj prefers to be a Nigerian first before being a Yoruba man.

Both positions are correct except that like Obj later found out, every Politician needs a home.

For PMB to align with his stock is not wrong except that his position is weak in Law.

By the Land Use Act of Nigeria, the Governors and not the President are in charge of Land matters.

Moreover, the Law on which the President is relying is non existent. To say that the President has been misadvised is to put it mildly.

In the Military, a General is said not to make mistakes. PMB is a General but he is a civilian President under the Nigerian constitution and not a military decree. For this reason, his pronouncements have to be taken for what they are: unconstitutional and therefore null and void.

Back to the present. Open Grazing is an anachronism and should be replaced with ranching.

My problem is that the President should be a statesman and see things in a proper perspective.

Cattle rearing may be of a national importance but it remains for all intents and purposes a private business.

Culture is a very interesting subject but thankfully, it is dynamic.

Open Grazing should bow to modernism. I recall the effort of GEJ in instituting Mobile Schools for cattle tearers in the name of nomadic Education.

That was GEJ trying to be of help as a PHD holder but I doubt if enough tests were done before launching the program.

As an Academic, I know within the four walls of a University, given budgetary constraints and a surfeit of common sense, a series of tests would have revealed the outcome of nomadic Education. But GEJ the Politician is not the same as the Academic.

Political jobbers, jesters and Oil money explain the difference.

Beyond culture and modernism, the world now raise valid concerns about grazing and deforestation. It goes beyond patriotism and borders on International trade and environmental best practices.

Enough said. The world is a global village and with the parlous state of our Economy, the least we should seek is global cooperation and not censure.

We are able and without open Grazing, we can still have a good beef Industry if only we try.