No grazing routes will be enforced in Igboland because there is no grazing law that affects the region, beginning from the First Republic to date, our investigations show.

In addition, a Senate spokesperson has further poured cold water on the plan when he said Nigerian laws do not recognize open grazing.

Experts told Enugu Metro that President Buhari is chasing the wind as there are no gazetted grazing routes anywhere in Nigeria.

The was a law that recognized grazing reserved for the old northern region but that is where it all ended – in the northern region.

Apart from the nine states that make up the former Eastern region, there are also no reserves in the two states of the former Midwestern region.

Consequently, today’s South-East and South-South regions have no cattle reserves and no cattle routes for federal authorities to enforce.

President Buhari had threatened that he was going to use a First Republic Grazing law to force free passages for Fulani herdsmen across the country.

But a director in charge of animal husbandry in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture told the Vanguard newspaper that only 141 of the reserves were gazetted through a 1965 northern region law.

The official also said 415 reserves have been created since then across the country, covering 4.5million hectares of land.

Only two of the reserves are in states located in the southern part of Nigeria, specifically in Ogun (1) and Oyo (2). The Ogun reserve is yet to be gazette, the official said.

Experts told Enugu Metro that the two reserves found in the Southern States were added by succeeding military regimes in Nigeria headed by northerners.

The 274 additional grazing reserves cover a total of 1.6million hectares of land.

Top officials in the Presidency are working on the assumption that cattle grazing routes do exist.

President Buhari declared publicly that there is such a law which he intends to dust up and use to give free passage across the country to Fulani herdsmen.

The President told an Arise TV news crew that he has requested officials to fish out an old First Republic Law that established “grazing routes.”

His plan, he said is to enforce the routes to allow cattle from the northern parts of Nigeria to graze unhindered in every part of the country.

Author

  • Ogbuagu Bob Anikwe, a veteran journalist and message development specialist, is now a community journalism advocate and publisher of Enugu Metro. Contact him on any of the channels below.

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