*RYHUQRU (O 5XIDL·V *D;H
Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State is not new to controversies. But his recent statement that the anti-open grazing laws being enacted by his southern colleagues could not be implemented was impunity taken too far.
Speaking at the All Progressives Congress (APC) secretariat in Abuja on the killings of farmers by herdsmen across the country, which has changed to herders/farmers crisis, the governor chided the southern governors for enacting Anti-Open Grazing Law in their states.
In what appeared to be a subtle threat, the Kaduna governor reportedly said the law is“not implementable”
He further argued that it was“not a matter of populist legislation or saying tomorrow this or that. It is not a solution”.
He accused them of“politicising”the killing of farmers by the herders, which led the states to make the laws. “What is unhelpful is the politicising of the situation and pass legislation that you know that you cannot implement.”
El-Rufai added: “The Northern States Governors Forum has already taken a position that open grazing is not a sustainable way of livestock production. And we must move towards ranching.
“But moving towards ranching cannot be done overnight. We have to plan, we have to have resources and we have to implement it.”
Kaduna State has become a killing field and the governor cannot find a solution to the killings, yet he is directing other governors not to make laws to stop the escalation of the killings in their states.
It is only in the fraudulent Nigerian federation that a state governor can interfere on the laws being made to ensure security of lives and good governance in other federating units.
El-Rufai wants his fellow governors in a federation to wait until his kinsmen-herders are ready for ranches before they are stopped from ravaging other people’s farmlands, destroying crops, raping women, sacking villagers, seizing their lands and killing those who question their atrocities.
Luckily, the Kaduna governor met his match in the person of Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, the Chairman of the Southern Governors’Forum and Ondo State Governor, who chided him, saying if he was properly quoted and his views not misrepresented, then it was obvious that he“is struggling hard to export banditry to the South under an expressed opinion that is laced with mischief.”