A Southwest group, Conscience of Yoruba Nation (COYN) has opposed the proposition by the Federal Government to create ranches in regions of the country as part of measures to resolve the deadly farmer-herder clashes in the country.
This was the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB) rejected the idea for the South-East.
President Bola Tinubu had, on Monday in Niger State, said his administration was ready to implement a comprehensive programme to end farmer-herders clashes nationwide, calling on states to provide land to create ranches.
“I know what it means as an economic sabotage for roaming cows to eat up the crops and vegetation of our lands; it could be painful but when we re-orientate the herders and make provision for cattle rearing, the problems will be solved.
“The governors should provide the lands and I, as the President, I’m committed to giving you a comprehensive programme that will solve this problem towards banishing hunger from the land”, President Tinubu had said.
In a statement on Thursday, COYN Convener, Otunba Adekolejo Omololu opposed the idea of providing land in the South-West to build ranches for herders from the North.
“As regards the recent instruction of the President of Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu, to the state governors to provide land for grazing to herders in an attempt to curtail the incessant farmer-herder crisis that is ravaging the country, the COYN hereby rejects this proposition of the President on this subject.
“Grazing zones as a proposal to combat the farmer-herder crisis has proved ineffective in the Middle Belt of the country. Benue State banned open grazing and provided ranches, yet the crisis in Benue has continued. In Plateau and Nasarawa states, lands were donated by the President Buhari administration but this did not stop the farmer-herder clashes. Southern Kaduna is another example of cases of failure of the grazing reserves; they have the longest record since the 1960 grazing reserve act where the former Northern Region let the herders lease land for grazing, the reserve land subsequently becoming disputed land, leading to further conflicts till today and continued killings in the region”.
The group, which is an affiliate of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, urged President Tinubu to look into farm security initiatives for farmers whose lives were endangered every day by armed herders who had been confrontational in their encounters with farmers, leading to bloody clashes.
“We propose that the President set up a committee to investigate the causes of the incessant farmer-herder crisis and why existing remedies in other regions of the country with adequate land mass for ranching have failed. Mandating state governors to give land as grazing zone appears to be a repeat of the same ineffective strategies that have plagued the country since the 1960s”, the South-West group said.
Similarly, in a statement on Thursday by its spokesman, Emma Power, IPOB vowed that it would allow any governor in the South-East to cede any land in the region for ranching or any agricultural purposes from external forces.
The pro-Biafran group declared that there was no land in the South-East for any kind of ranching.
IPOB said, “Nigerian media yesterday reported what could be considered as a great disservice, the President’s call during a political inauguration of his agricultural programme in Niger State, where he was said to have asked the state governors to provide land for RUGA and ranches.
“Perhaps, the President has forgotten that political campaigns where promises are made to win elections are over. The recent public call for the state governors to provide land for agriculture is not in good faith because it will embolden terrorist herdsmen.
“Nevertheless, we in the IPOB movement and family will never allow ceding or selling any part of our ancestorial land to these dangerous terrorists and bandits for whatever reason. The Biafra region has no land for whatever purpose. Biafrans are farmers and pastoralists, too.
“Our lands are not sufficient for Biafrans to farm and rear livestock, let alone ceding some to the dangerous terrorists. President Tinubu can cede lands in the South-West and the North, but definitely not in the South-East and the South-South.
“IPOB calls all the governors in Biafra land not to surrender Biafra land by obeying the political call to give lands for RUGA and ranching. IPOB and Ndigbo, in general, will resist any governor who gives or sells any land to Fulanis for whatever purpose”.
IPOB said it recalled that Buhari “adopted all tricks in the book to establish RUGA settlement in all the states, but Nigerians resisted them”.
“It is unfortunate that President Tinubu’s government that has subjected Nigerians to an avoidable hunger and economic disaster is pushing an agenda that will further increase food scarcity and insecurity in the contraption called Nigeria”, the separatist group said.
