Senator calls for review of grazing routes law

A National Assembly member, Sen. Yusuf Yusuf, has called for review the grazing routes and reserves law to end recurring conflicts between herdsmen and farmers across the country.

Yusuf told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday that the law which had existed for a long time had been neglected by governments over the years, thereby leading to encroachment.

He stated that there was the need to clearly demarcate the areas reserved for grazing so as to avoid the crises which was assuming dangerous dimensions.

He said the major cause of the conflicts was that farmers, over time, encroached on the grazing routes, thereby making it difficult for herdsmen to move their cattle around freely.

"We must re-visit the law that created those routes and find out how people encroached on the land to hinder the movement of cattle from one place to another.

"It is a disturbing event and it has been with us for a long time and it has gotten to this point because we have not done anything serious to tackle the problem.

"The issue is that there are specified legal cattle routes in this country and as time went by, the legal routes became fertile and farmers started encroaching and when people begin to encroach, it will result into conflicts.

"The Agatu killings in Benue, for instance, were unfortunate; this issue brewed over time and our leaders did not see it coming,’’ he said.

The lawmaker called on relevant authorities to dialogue with the herdsmen and farmers to sheath their swords pending the demarcation of the routes and grazing reserves.

On calls by some Nigerians for herdsmen to be resettled to prevent them from wandering and destroying farmlands, Yusuf said that resettling them may create more problems than envisaged.

"Yes we need to look at how to restrict their movement by building ranches for them, but let us not forget that this thing is cultural; it is very difficult to change culture overnight.

"If we talk about creating ranches, is it by law and if they are eventually created, who owns them, because people may begin to say land has been allocated to Fulani herdsmen.

"And, even if we succeed in creating these ranches, we may end up having political herdsmen who will allocate the land to themselves.

He expressed concern that some of the herdsmen who caused havoc in communities across the country were not Fulani.

Yusuf also called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency put machinery in place to identify those who disguised as Fulani herdsmen to unleash terror on Nigerians.