GOVERNOR YAHAYA INUWA OF GOMBE ON ANTI-GRAZING LAW 

Gombe State Governor, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya, has opposed the anti-open-grazing stance of his southern counterparts, saying there were southern mechanics, plumbers and pharmacists in the North too.

 
According to him, if the southern governors ask the herders to go the question of where they will go to arises.

In the same vein, he said, if the north ask the artisans to go, the same question will arise.

In an interview with ‘The Nation’, the governor said on the security situation in the country: “Today, the criminals’ targets are no longer the ordinary and the rich man on the street; they also target emirs and chiefs. Why? Because the public system doesn’t work. And who is the custodian of the public system? It is those of us in government and the traditional institutions. ‘

 
‘So, from the village heads, the district heads, the emirs to the local government chairman, the governor and even the President, instead of us to follow the laid down tracks, we have deviated. That deviation is the cause of these problems. Instead of us to maintain cattle routes, grazing reserve and maintain forest reserve, we destroyed them. They were either allocated for housing estates or farms. Meanwhile, the ordinary cattle herders are denied where to graze and denied their means of livelihood.

“As a result, they go into cattle rustling and sell the cattle to another greedy man who wants it for himself. Now we end up breeding rustlers and from rustlers to bandits and from bandits to kidnappers. Now somebody that lost between N20 million and N30 million on cattle can earn maybe N100 million because he is holding an emir or a chief. We must wake up and follow the code of conduct because these two great religions are codified. The Qur’an and the Bible, none of them says we should not be our brother’s keepers. That is the genesis of the problems that we are in now today. Down south, there could be others that are similar but the truth of the matter is that if the Governors in Ondo, Ogun, Osun or anywhere in the south said there should not be cattle grazing or open grazing and you don’t have a grazing reserve what do you expect to happen?

“Meanwhile, in the North, and I have told them, I have nothing to hide. We have mechanics, pharmacists, technicians, plumbers or whatever who have lived harmoniously with our people and we cannot say no to them. If you say no to those people, where do you want them to go? And there is no space here in Gombe. As I said, no cattle route, no grazing reserve, nothing whatsoever, so where do you want them to go? This anarchy that is setting in will remain pervasive until we find a solution to it. The task ahead is really a herculean one and each and every one of us has a role to play.”