BY FOLASHADE KEHINDE
SENIOR Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, has said that there is a need to stop herdsmen from roaming all over the country to prevent clashes with farmers.
According to him, this has to stop because when the herders roam about, they drive their cattle into farmlands and eat up the crops, which results in killings when the farmers fight back.
Shehu said, “I am glad that governors of the North are coming together to say let us resolve this problem of grazing because we have to stop these herders from roaming and eating up our crops all over the country.
“They drive their cattle into farmlands and eat up the crops. The farmers fight back and the killings follow. The country cannot continue in this way.”
He said this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme, in reaction to an allegation by a Peoples Democratic Party chieftain, Katch Ononuju, that President Muhammadu Buhari was grabbing lands to give to herdsmen.
Ononuju had also featured on the Channels TV programme.
He alleged that the kidnappings and killings had continued because Government did not care about the lives of citizens.
But Shehu said, “The President has no plan to fish for a land other than the one he has inherited from his father. Some of them have even be donated for community purposes but I think we need to get our facts right when we speak on some of these issues.”
On the grazing problem, he noted, “This country has a grazing problem because the herders are mostly Fulani. The challenge is from these places they had practised, you know, the encroachment by desert, leading to drying up of a lot of grazing lands in the northern parts of the country.
“This has put pressure on the herders who have been looking to the South-West green grass so that their cattle will eat and also have water to drink. It is a global climate situation, which is unfortunate, considering what has happened along the Lake Chad basin.”
On security, he explained, “The president has said times without number that his expectations are still to be met. That means we are not exactly where we wish to be. However, a fair judgement that can be made about ongoing efforts of the administration is to judge it by the responses it makes when challenges of security come up.
“In all countries of the world, there is always one form of security challenge. The thing then is how do you respond? The present administration has responded within the capacity, competence, using available resources and manpower and all the limitations that come with that. So, can we get better? We hope we will continue to improve.”
