. Shehu on his own – Akeredolu

The Presidency yesterday questioned the propriety of the ban placed on open grazing in Southern Nigeria by governors of the region.

A statement by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, promised that rehabilitation work on grazing reserves in the country will commence in June.

Shehu said that President Muhammadu Buhari had expressed a strong resolve to address the conflicts between herders and farmers in a sustained and lasting manner that should lead to the emergence of a permanent solution to the frequent clashes between them, as well as the associated problem of the gun-wielding “killer herdsmen.”

According to him, President Buhari has approved a number of specific measures to bring a permanent end to the frequent skirmishes as recommended by Alhaji Sabo Nanono, the Minister of Agriculture, in a report the President signed in April, hence, the recommendations were made “before the actions of the Southern Governors Forum which attempted to place a ban on open grazing and other acts of politicking intended by its signatories to demonstrate their power.”

“It is very clear that there was no solution offered from their resolutions to the herder-farmer clashes that have been continuing in our country for generations. But the citizens of the Southern states — indeed citizens of all states of Nigeria — have a right to expect their elected leaders and representatives to find answers to challenges of governance and rights, and not to wash their hands off hard choices by, instead, issuing bans that say: “not in my state.” It is equally true that their announcement is of questionable legality, given the constitutional right of all Nigerians to enjoy the same rights and freedoms within every one of our 36 states (and FCT) — regardless of the state of their birth or residence,” the statement reads in part

But Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has lampooned Shehu over the  comment on the resolutions of the 17 southern governors made at a meeting in Asaba Delta State.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant on Special Duties and Strategy, Dr Doyin Odebowale, on Tuesday, title ‘Mr Garba Shehu: On the trail of an agent provocateur’. “Anyone who has been following the utterances of this man, as well as his fellow travellers on the self-deluding, mendacious but potentially dangerous itinerary to anarchy, cannot but conclude that he works, assiduously, for extraneous interests whose game plan stands at variance with the expectations of genuine lovers of peaceful coexistence among all the peoples whose ethnic extractions are indigenous to Nigeria. Mr Garba must disclose, this day, the real motive(s) of those he serves, definitely not the President. He cannot continue to hide under some opaque, omnibus, and dubious directives to create confusion in the polity. The easy recourse to mendacious uppity in pushing a barely disguised pernicious agendum is well understood. The declaration that the recommendations of the Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, a mere political appointee like Garba Shehu, are now the “lasting solutions” which eluded all the elected representatives of the people of the Southern part of the country, exposes this man as a pitiable messenger who does not seem to understand the limits of his relevance and charge,” the statement reads in part.