Governor Akeredolu Opposes Buhari’s Proposal For Open Grazing

Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu has spoken out against President Muhammad Buhari’s directive to practice open grazing.

While speaking to an audience at an Akure Memorial Lecture on June 12, the governor expressed doubts about the First Republic’s system’s viability, claiming that things had changed.

In an interview with Arise TV on Thursday, President Buhari said he had asked Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami to begin the process of reclaiming land from people who had changed cattle grazing routes for personal use.

But, Akeredolu pointed out that cattle grazing routes do not reflect the demands of 21st-century development in cities and states.

“Where we are now, the Dome, something was here before, so now are we going to bring it back and reinstate what was here before?” Mr Akeredolu asked rhetorically.

“Or where the Deji of Akure’s Palace is now, you say that it is a grazing route and we have to remove the palace for a grazing route? We can’t do that now.

“Ethiopia has about 200 million cattle and you won’t see them on the streets. They are located in the hinterlands designated for grazing.”

The President during the Interview, also claimed that the AK-47 bearing killers herdsmen are not Nigerians, arguing that Nigerian herders do not bear guns but sticks or machetes.

And with this comment from the President, many Nigerians are wondering how porous the nation’s borders have become and how insecured the country is at the moment with the Commander-in-Chief indirectly admitting that his government cannot stop criminals from entering from neighbouring countries to cause mayhem.