Nigeria: Indiscriminate Grazing, the Law and the Herdsmen

opinion

The report and images of cattle grazing inside the National Stadium, Abuja, remains, indeed, a grave embarrassment to the government, an assault on the senses of and a gratuitous insult to the people of Nigeria. Apart from the effrontery and wanton recklessness with which the herdsmen carried on with the violation of the stadium, what was more disgusting about the situation was the glaring inaction of those who should act. According to the reports, whilst security personnel at the stadium claimed to be too incapacitated to do anything about it, officials of the Ministry of Youth and Sports remained silent. This is sad and exasperating. It is a dangerous precedent that must not be allowed to fester.

Perhaps, it is the need to guard against this kind of irresponsibility demonstrated at the federal level right under the nose of those at the commanding heights of the nation's leadership that informed the anti-grazing law which has just been passed by the Taraba State government, as well as its condemnation by the Fulani community. The misgivings expressed over the anti-grazing law by the Kawtal Fulbe-Nigeria, the umbrella body of Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria, is, of course, understandable given the deployment of self-preservation devices by many governors and communities. But barring extraneous factors such as witch-hunting or any naked show of power, the gesture is a bold expression of the government's primary function of safeguarding lives and properties of its citizens.

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