Group rejects moves to open grazing zones in Yoruba land, South West

The Conscience of Yoruba Nation, an affiliate group of Afenifere, has rejected the federal government’s proposal for the provision of grazing zones in the South West, to stop herders/farmers crisis.

DAILY POST recalls that President Tinubu, recently urged the state governors in the country to provide land in their states for herders to graze on.

According to him, the development would make frequent crises a thing of the past and put a stop to frequent losses of lives and farm produce.

He said this at the flag off of the agricultural mechanisation revolution for food security and commissioning of the remodelled domestic terminal of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Airport in Minna, Niger State.

However, in a statement issued by the convener of the group, Otunba Kole Omololu, in Akure, the Ondo state capital, the group said that the proposal appears to be a repeat of same ineffective strategies that have plagued the country since 1960s.

Omololu said that the group rejected the “recent instruction of our president of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to the state governors to provide land for grazing to herders in attempt to curtail the incessant farmer/herders crisis that is ravaging the country.

“Members of COYN hereby reject this proposition of President Bola Tinubu on this subject.

“Grazing zones as a proposal to combat the farmers herders 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 State and Nasarawa, lands were donated by the President Buhari administration but this did not stop the continued Farmers -Herders clashes.

“Southern Kaduna is another example of the 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,” he said.