by Eze Eluchie, Esq.
A close scrutiny of the various
land-grab schemes of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration reveals a
very uncanny desire to appropriate lands belonging to other ethnic
nationalities in Nigeria for the interest of Fulani Herdsmen, putting a lie-badge
on Mr. Presidents avowal during his inauguration in 2015 that ‘I am for nobody
and for everybody’.
First it was the ‘Grazing Routes’,
which the President and his Minister of Defense claimed, the blockage of which
were the cause of the atrocities being perpetuated by Fulani Herdsmen militia
against indigenous mainly in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria; thereafter came
the Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) Settlement Project wherein each State of the
Federation was to carve out a minimum acreage for use of Fulani Herdsmen; then
followed the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP), same old wine of
using public resources to forcefully appropriate lands for Fulani Herdsmen; the
highly obnoxious ‘Nigeria Waterways Bill’ which sought to bring all rivers and
their surrounding banks within the control of the Federal Government (also in
direct contrast with the provisions of the Land Use Act; and now this latest
brainwave of a rephrased ‘Grazing Route’ with the President and his handlers
coming up with an imaginary 368 such routes. Like the schemes before, it, this
too must fail.
In response to the statements contained
in the recent announcement from the Office of the President contained in a
Press Release signed by the Press Secretary to the President, Femi Adesina,
regarding President Buhari’s directive that so-called ‘368 grazing routes
across 25 States of Nigeria’ be documented with ‘dispatch’ ‘to determine the
level of encroachment’ amongst other issues, the Igbo National Movement (INM)
wishes to state as follows:
1. Blatant disregard of Constitutional
provisions:
It is with utter dismay that INM
observes the constant acts of brazen disregard, disrespect and utter contempt
with which the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Muhammadu
Buhari, has been treating the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, as it relates to the custody and ownership
of lands and the authority duly vested with lands in the country. This impunity
is indicative of either a realization by the President and his handlers that
the Constitution is now defunct and thus can be breached with impunity, or
outright mischief intended to create disaffection and rancor amongst Nigerians.
May we remind President Buhari that the
entirety of the powers and attributes of the President of the Federal Republic
is founded in the Constitution, and constant derogation therefrom will only
serve to impugn on the integrity, relevance and utility of the said office and
by extension, all other elected political offices and our efforts at democratic
governance
2. Vesting of Lands:
The Nigerian Constitution,
unequivocally, vests all lands in any State of Nigeria in the State Governors
(for lands in urban areas) and in the Local Government authorities (for lands
in rural areas) {Section 1 of the Land Use Act, which by Section 315(5) of the
Nigerian Constitution, is an integral aspect of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic}
The same Land Use Act which is made an
integral aspect of the Constitution by Section 315(5) of the Constitution. The
tenor of Section 26 of the Land Use Act, renders null and void all previous
laws regarding control and ownership of lands in Nigeria. This means
explicitly, that whatsoever pre-1970 legislations Mr. President and his handlers
are relying upon as basis for whatsoever ‘grazing routes’, has lapsed, is
extinct and now rendered null and void.
Considering the fact that the Vice
President of the Federal Republic, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and the Attorney
General and Minister for Justice of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, are both
senior lawyers, it can be presumed that the explicit provisions of the
Constitution which vests all Lands in the country in the State Governors and
Area Council authorities must have been brought to the knowledge of the
Presidency before the release of the provocative Press Release on the spurious
‘385 grazing routes’.
3. Buhari’s desperation encourages
brazen conducts by Fulani herdsmen across Nigeria:
INM is deeply worried by the fact that
the continuing efforts by the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to
appropriate lands belonging to other indigenous ethnic nationalities in Nigeria
for the benefit of Fulani Herdsmen is directly encouraging the said Fulani
Herdsmen to act in audaciously brazen manners across Nigeria, acting in manners
to suggest they are above the laws and basically getting away with the
commission of mass atrocities.
INM has observed with consternation the
direct effects of the Federal Governments ill-advised continuing efforts at
land-grab for Fulani Herdsmen in Benue, Kaduna, Nasarawa and Plateau States
amongst others, where Fulani Herdsmen militia now forcefully occupy lands which
they had seized from indigenous owners, in most cases wiping out entire
settlements. In a revelation into the bizarre mindset and reasoning of the
President and his handlers, the same Femi Adesina had publicly admonished indigenous
ethnic nationalities not to challenge Fulani Herdsmen quest to seize their
lands at the risk of being slaughtered, saying: “You can only have ancestral
attachment to land when you are alive. If you are talking about ancestral
attachment, if you are dead, how does that attachment matter”? Oddly enough,
the Federal Government and its various security agencies inclusive of the Military,
have whilst restraining the indigenous owners of these seized lands to
Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps, have acquiesced and tacitly
encouraged the Fulani Herdsmen to ‘enjoy’ their loot/conquest.
4. No Grazing Routes in Igboland
INM categorically asserts that no
grazing routes exist in Igboland and thus urges the Muhammadu Buhari-led
administration to steer clear of extending this desperation to seize lands for
Fulani Herdsmen away from Igboland. In Igboland, open grazing of whatever
domestic livestock is abhorred and in most communities’ sanctions are placed
against owners of livestock found openly grazing or loitering t=in the
community.
INM seizes this opportunity to state
that the Governor of Ebonyi State, being the only Igbo man on the ‘technical
committee’ empaneled by the President which had recommended the so-called
‘grazing routes’, was clearly on a personal frolic in assuming such
unconstitutional duties and his actions and membership thereof and the
recommendations emanating are just in pursuance of extant objectives harbored
by the President, General Buhari.
Conclusion:
INM calls on the Muhammadu Buhari-led government to desist
from its parochial, bigoted and clannish efforts at seizing lands from
indigenous ethnic nationalities with the intent of handing same over to Fulani
Herdsmen under whatsoever guise. Governments continuation on this
unconstitutional and unlawful vocation of attempting to seize lands will be
vehemently challenged and resisted by the people.
General
Muhammadu Buhari,a herdsman and ethnic Fulani, has exhibited extreme bigotry towards
his ethnic group.
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