…Kicks Against Ban On Open Grazing
Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State has reechoed calls for power to shift to the southern part of the country, backing the Southern Governors’ Forum’s resolution on the zoning of the presidential seat in 2023.
The southern governors had during a meeting in Lagos on Monday agreed that the region should produce Nigeria’s next president based on the principles of equity, and fairness, an assertion Zulum also corroborated.
“I have said it times without number that I, Professor Babagana Zulum, I am of the view that the presidency should go to the south in the year 2023 because the unity of our country is very important,” the governor said during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday.
“Secondly, inclusivity is very important. Thirdly, I am in the APC. Six or seven years ago, APC had zoned the presidency to northern Nigeria based on the agreement that in the year 2023, the presidency should go to the south.”
The governor admitted that the southern leaders have the right to call for power shift to the region but faulted those insisting that the zone must produce the next Nigerian leader.
“But again, this is politics. We are supposed to meet and discuss this issue among ourselves, among the political class,” he explained, as he called for caution so as not to overheat the polity in the lead-up to the 2023 polls.
“This statement that people are saying that the president must go to the south, I want them to remove the word ‘must.’”
He also refuted speculations that his stance on zoning was due to his political interests.
“And I have said it before, I am not interested in becoming the vice president of the country, neither the president of the nation but I want to say the right thing,” Zulum added, doubling down on his earlier stance.
Meanwhile, Zulum, says the prohibition of herders from grazing openly in some states in the country won’t work until the insecurity situation, as well as the socio-political and economic dimensions of the crisis, is addressed.
He spoke on Wednesday morning during ‘Sunrise Daily’ breakfast show on Channels Television.
Many states in Nigeria including the 17 Southern states had banned open grazing in their region, to curb cases of rape, killing and kidnapping traced to some unscrupulous and furtive elements who masquerade as herdsmen. Despite stiff opposition and criticisms by many northern bigwigs, Southern governors met on Monday and set September 1, 2021 for the promulgation of the anti-open grazing law in their states.
But speaking on the television programme, the Borno State Governor said the socio-political and economic dimensions of the insecurity in the country as well as the insurgency war in the North-East which he said is fast spreading to other parts of the country must first be addressed.
The governor said, “We have to address the socio-political and economic dimensions of this crisis which is very important because there is increasing poverty in the sub-region; that is something that will trigger insurgency.
“There is increasing food insecurity in the sub-region because food insecurity is the worst form of insecurity and that is why the Borno State Government has been advocating for farming in the last two years. Farmers should be allowed to go to their farm lands.
“The Nigerian military should create the enabling environment for farmers to go to their farmlands so that they can cultivate their lands. It is no longer sustainable for our internally displaced persons living in IDP camps and host communities to receive food and non-food items from donor partners. People must earn their livelihood if we want this insurgency to come to an end.”
