We Need To Change How Herdsmen Operate – Presidency

The presidency has said there’s a need to restrict the movement of herdsmen and stop them from wandering all over the country.

Speaking when he featured on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Tuesday, Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, said this would go a long way in addressing the issue of farmers-herdsmen Clash.

Eko Hot Blog reports that Katch Ononuju, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who also featured on the programme, had alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari was grabbing and appropriating other people’s lands to the herdsmen.

Ononuju said lives of the citizens hold no regard for the government, thus, the perennial insecurity, kidnappings, killings and clashes between farmers and herders.

Responding to the allegation, Shehu blamed the activities of the herdsmen on the weather condition and desert encroachment of grazing lands in the north.

“This country has a grazing problem because the herders are mostly Fulanis. The challenge is from these places they had practised, you know, the encroachment by desert leading to drying up of a lot of grazing lands in the northern-most parts of the country, “Shehu said.

He said the situation had forced the herders to seek refuge in fecund land of the south-west which has green grass in abundance so that their cattle would eat and also have water to drink.

He attributed the development to global climate change.

He expressed delight at the effort of the northern governors in proffering solution to the problem of grazing “because we have to stop these herders from roaming and eating up our crops all over the country”

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“They drive their cattle into farmlands and eat up the crops. The farmers fight back and the killings follow. The country cannot continue in this way.

He declared that the president does not plan to evict people from their land nor does he have the intention to grab land and allocate it to people, noting that “other than the one he has inherited from his father. Some of them have even be donated for community purposes but I think we need to get our facts right when we speak on some of these issues.”