Buhari living in fool’s paradise with attempt to foist grazing reserves on Nigerians – Afenifere

The Pan Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, on Friday slammed President Muhammadu Buhari over the planned review of 368 grazing reserves in the country.President Buhari had on Thursday approved the review of the grazing reserves in 25 states of the federation in a bid to determine the level of encroachment on the sites.

But in a statement issued by its Secretary-General, Chief Sola Ebiseni, Afenifere said the grazing reserves are worse than  RUGA and cattle colonies rejected by governors of the 36 states in the country.

The group branded the President’s move as a “sweet pipe dream in a fool’s paradise.”

Afenifere noted that Nigeria has 417 grazing reserves out of which only 113 had been gazetted.

The group described the policy of Buhari’s administration on grazing reserves as the implementation of the script by the Fulani intelligentsia.

It counseled the President against wasting taxpayers’ money on the project.

The statement read: “The approval by President Muhammadu Buhari to review, with dispatch, 368 Grazing Reserves across allegedly 25 states in the country to determine the levels of encroachment did not surprise Nigerians.

“It does not also matter that having felt the pulse of the nation in his interview with the Arise Television in June, the President is still wasting taxpayers’ scarce resources on a programme whose conception lacks all conceivable growth capacity.

“It is instructive that the recommendation and implementation committee is headed by Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, the Chief of Staff to the President who, in conjunction with Prof. Attahiru Jega, during the first term of Buhari, presented a ‘Memorandum On Pastoralist-Farmers’ Conflicts And the search for peaceful Resolution’ published in January 2018, which contained the same recommendations now being foisted on the nation.

“They have submitted, among other recommendations that ‘it is clear that Nigeria and indeed Africa have to plan towards the transformation of pastoralism into settled forms of animal husbandry.

“The establishment of grazing reserves provides the opportunity for practicing a more limited form of pastoralism and is, therefore, a pathway towards a more settled form of animal husbandry. Grazing reserves are areas of land demarcated, set aside, and reserved for exclusive or semi-exclusive use by pastoralists.