Press Statement
Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum(SMBLF) met in Abuja on Wednesday 25th September 2019,against the state of general insecurity consuming human lives on daily basis .Leaders were worried that instead of mobilizing national consensus to confront the monumental tragedies confronting the country ,the Federal Government has busied itself with policies that are divisive and smack of domination and conquest of sections of the country by a section .
Some of the unpopular policies include the following to which we restate our rejection :
1 National Livestock(cattle ) Transformation Plan a.k.a RUGA: Meeting restates the rejection of SMBLF to the use of the collective resources of Nigerians to convert herdsmen ,majority of whom are non-Nigerians,from nomadic to sedentary lifestyles while doing their private business that has nothing to do with the rest of us beyond being their market .It is akin to government making budgetary allocations to Coca Cola to produce drinks to sell to Nigerians.
Apart from the plan not making any economic sense for the country there are other fundamental problems it raises .
– There. Is the issue of citizenship which the unthoughtful exposition of Bauchi Governor,Bala Mohammed,that Fulanis from all over Africa are going to benefit from the scheme .Said he:
“The Fulani man is a global or African person.He moves from Gambia to Senegal and his nationality is Fulani…So we can not just close our border and say the Fulani man I just a Nigerian”
So why are we closing our border with Benin Republic where there are many people of Yoruba origin there ?Are Igbos who are aborigines in Haiti to come to Nigeria without consular services ?What is the contribution of those Fulani imports to the development of Nigeria to come and live on our resources when our citizens are the poorest on earth ?Why is it difficult to apply common sense in our inter-ethnic relations in Nigeria?
The above shows clearly that NLTP will only escalate the clashes between the indigenous communities and cattle settlers as experiences in Southern and Middle Belt areas of Nigeria have shown that the Fulani imports do not assimilate into the ways of lives of Nigerians in those parts of the country where they reside .They live apart from the locals and set up communities with alien culture that disrupts the cultural flow of the indigenes .
– The subterfuge of the whole deal is exposed in that while government officials deceive Nigerians that the plan will stop open grazing for ranching ,option 1 in it provides for the establishment of corridors for migrant cattle with feeding and watering points along the routes .This is as stark as the lie that “livestock” includes other sources of meat .The entire plan is about cattle and herdsmen.
We therefore do not accept deception and are more persuaded to accept the the declaration by SSA Media to the President ,Mallam Garba Shehu who dismissed the distinction between NLTP and RUGA by VP Yemi Osinbajo as a mere semantic game.
We do not accept the policy and we ask the Federal Government to allow those who are in cattle business establish ranches on their own under the guidelines and laws of the host state .
2 Waterways Bill
Another conquest agenda in sync with NLTP is the vexatious Executive Bill titled “A Bill for An Act to Establish a Regulatory Framework for the Water Resources Sector in Nigeria, Provide for the Equitable and Sustainable Redevelopment, Management, Use and Conservation of Nigeria’s Surface Water and Groundwater Resources and for Related Matter.” This bill seeks to abrogate all existing laws and institutions governing the management and control of water resources nationwide and replace them with new ones in a manner that gives the President, through the Minister of Water Resources, the power to control the nation’s rivers (especially those that pass through more than one state), lakes and underground water. According to it: ”All surface water and groundwater wherever it occurs, is a resource common to all people, the use of which is subject to statutory control. There shall be no private ownership of water but the right to use water in accordance with the provisions of this Act.”
The Waterways Bill is another land-grabbing move like RUGA by ethnic supremacists who are working against the unity of the country .Major rivers in Nigeria can be made available, by Federal law if the bill is passed ,to Fulani pastoralists and there is nothing the indigenous people within such vicinities can do about it. The Police and the security agencies will be handy to enforce it and it will be another White farmers versus the African landowners scenario in Southern Africa during the Apartheid season.
It is a recipe for unending armed conflicts. It also means the Federal Government can, wherever it identifies a large body of underground water (aquifers), decide to open a “Federal” water scheme, and no one can stop Fulani cattle owners from taking over such places.
. The “all people” in the bill also means that Pastoralists from any part of Africa ,as explained by Bauchi Governor ,can come and settle along the lush waterways of the Middle Belt and Southern protected by Nigeria’s Federal law to the detriment of indigenes who have for centuries depended on their natural resources for their livelihood.
Meeting called on all lawmakers from the South and Middle Belt to resist this bill as we shall be keenly interested in developments around it.
Yinka Odumakin.
South West
Prof Chigozie Ogbu
South East
Senator Bassey Henshaaw.
South South
Dr Isuwa Dogo
Middle Belt
