Nigeria’s security undermined by Buhari’s sentimental attachment to open grazing -Moghalu

A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and ex-presidential candidate, Prof Kingsley Moghalu, has said the President Muhammadu Buhari has undermined Nigeria’s security for too long with his sentimental attachment to open grazing.

This is as he hailed the Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Masari, for his new opposition to open grazing and amnesty for bandits.

Masari had yesterday said his administration should never have negotiated with bandits.

According to him, “I do not regret it. But the only thing I can say is that with the benefit of hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it. We realised: who are you talking with? Because they do not have an umbrella.

“They are not pushing for any ideological view; they are not pushing for any religious view. They are simply bandits, criminals and thieves. Any person in the forest is a potential criminal and should be dealt with as such.”

On the open grazing controversy, Masari said, “We intend to ban unnecessary roaming about with cattle. But before we do that, we will make provisions where the animals will stay. I think the situation in the southern part of the country is slightly different from the northern part of the country.

“The majority of the herders are from the northern part of the country. So, for us, we need a law that should be obeyed, not one that will be disregarded. For us to come up with the law we will first of all put some structures on ground, then, we will have the law that can back up the structures so that nobody would roam or move about with cattle.

“Even that is un-Islamic. It says do not have the numbers you cannot feed that you have to stretch over to people’s land or on somebody’s farm. I do not think that it is right. And, certainly, once we put in place ranching for the grazing of all animals, the issue of anybody roaming about will be a past.”

Reacting, Moghalu took to Twitter saying, “I commend Katsina State Gov Aminu Masari for his admission of his mistakes in negotiating with terrorists a.k.a “bandits”, his new opposition to open grazing of cattle, and other far-reaching statements including opposing amnesty to terrorists.

“For too long, President Buhari has undermined Nigeria’s security that he swore an oath to protect under the constitution with his sentimental attachment to open grazing that simply doesn’t belong in the 21st century and facilitates violent land grabs by terrorist herdsmen.

“The road to protecting our lives in Nigeria begins with the right mindset in our authorities. Thank God for Gov. Masari’s belated realisation. May the President of Nigeria go to sleep and wake up with a new vision!”