…Says herdsmen are his brothers
Cross-River State governor, Prof. Ben Ayade has vowed not to sign the Anti-Open Grazing Bill into law in the State.
Recall that Southern governors recently agreed to ban open-grazing and had given a timeline for laws to be enacted to that effect. Some governors in the southern region had already signed the Bill into law, while those that are yet to do so have such Bills at different stages of legislation.
According to reports, in a conference on Thursday, in his office in Calabar, Governor Ayade rebuked acts to illegitimate the legal jobs of many Fulani herdsmen, which is open-grazing.
The Governor further revealed that “we cannot by law illegitimate the legitimate jobs of the nomadic herdsmen. Even though Southern Governors have made it clear that all Southern Governors must pass the Anti-open Grazing Law, Cross River has not; I have not, because I have to find a solution, I cannot ask my herdsmen brothers, whether of northern or southern parts of the country, to shut down their trade and stay confined whether they have a pasture or not”.
The Governor further stated that it is very insensitive to shut down the herdsmen just because they don’t have the funds to set up confined grazing or any other issue, adding that if he obliged to the Southern Governors’ orders, it would lead to anarchy in Cross-River State, adding, “If indeed open-grazing is coming with severe consequences, we should come together and look for a solution, we must find a way to create a balance between the herders and the farmers and that’s the essence of being a leader”.
Gov. Ben Ayade, in the closing stages of his speech, stated that he decided to pull back from signing the law and looked into possible solutions, adding that that was why the State House of Assembly is enacting Open-Grazing Management Law in the State. He noted that the management law is not a prohibition and that it isn’t morally and ethically acceptable to prohibit a business that has been functioning before he was born.
