Southern Governors Have No Apologies On Open Grazing Ban, Restructuring – Okowa

Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa

Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, yesterday, reprimanded critics of southern governors over their decision to ban opening grazing of cattle in the south, restructuring of the country and other demands at its meeting in Asaba, Guardian reports.

Expressing surprise and disappointment that some individuals in the presidency are still canvassing retention of open grazing of cattle, the report quoted Okowa as saying “We owe no apologies, because we spoke the truth and we thought that the truth was in the best interest of the country.

“Can we truly be promoting open grazing at this moment, seeing all the atrocities being committed across the country? The president was misrepresented, because I have seen news headlines that the president has not opposed the ban on open grazing. We need to reconsider our best options. Where we were 50 years ago should not be where we should be today and tomorrow.”

Recall the governor hosted 16 of his colleagues on 11 May, 2021 in Asaba where they had called for state police and devolution of powers from the Federal Government to the States.

Pulse reports that “Some of the resolutions of the southern governors earned them a barrage of attacks from the federal government and from politicians who hail from Nigeria's northern region”

“The voices for restructuring have been very strong out there. Why will somebody even criticise on restructuring? The only thing you need to know is that restructuring is of various facets, you only have to bring forth your arguments”, Okowa said as he spoke to Journalists in Asaba.

Vanguard reports that the governor’s stand came against the backdrop of the criticisms of the Asaba Declaration by Abubakar Malami, Federal Attorney and Minister of Justice including Mallam Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman.

“I actually thought that the voices who tend to criticise the meeting failed to have an understanding. People should learn to approach things after a very deep thought rather than just looking at the surface picking one thing and speaking about it.

“We actually came in as state governors to reaffirm our belief in the Nigerian state and secondly we do also realise that there are things going on very wrongly and there was a need to address them”, the governor said.

Okowa had earlier called for the writing of a new constitution, not an amendment, to accommodate emerging issues of good governance and greater interest of Nigerians when he received on a courtesy visit, the Senate sub-committee on review of the 1999 Constitution led by Senator James Manager in Asaba.

He told the committee that a new Constitution for the country had become imperative in view of observed inadequacies in the 1999 Constitution and called for the insertion of a clause to allow for the re-writing of the present Constitution while it would continue to be in operation until a new one was ready.

“I believe that the southern governors’ meeting was in the best interest of this nation and not just the southern part of the country, because the voices of our people have continued to ring loud and ours was just to reflect their voice.

“We first proclaimed as a people and as governors who run the various States in Southern Nigeria that we believe in the Federation and unity of this country, because there has been a lot of voices on secession here and there”, Okowa stated.

“There is nobody that has not talked about restructuring. Even the APC government constituted a restructuring committee headed by Nasir el-Rufai and they agreed that restructuring was inevitable. It has to be done. That is why we asked for the national dialogue so that we can sit down and look at the issues and agree together as a nation, as peoples of same nation on what and what will be needed and I think it is very important.

“It is important and it will help to enhance the peace and recreate hope amongst our people that truly we are in a federation that is united in the best interest of the federating units. I don’t see why people will need to criticise that”

Still on the issue of restructuring and ban on open grazing, Okowa acknowledged that it might not be a one-day affair, adding that the process has to start and there must be a programme in which the people must begin to take some actions over what they know was clearly wrong.

Okowa warned that Nigeria’s growing food insecurity might soon spiral to a tipping point on account of the threat posed by open grazing, adding: “Today, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is spending a lot of money to encourage farmers to ensure that we are food sufficient, but some of efforts are lost, because of insecurity.

“Farmers can’t go to farm, their crops are destroyed, they are maimed and raped and some killed. We cannot continue like this, because if you have a programme on which you are spending billions, we must secure it and we must ensure food security of this country”, Okowa stated. “In some parts of Taraba State, ranching has been on for so many several years and we can actually create ranches where the cattle will have more meat, more milk and children can go to school.”

Okowa called for wholesale adoption of ranching given that, apart from safety issues, it is more beneficial for both cattle owners and herders.

“Ranching obviously is the only way out as is happening in other climes and it’s not impossible in this place. In some parts of Taraba State, ranching has been on for so many years and we can actually create those ranches where the cattle will have more meat, more milk and then the children can actually afford to go to school”, he said.

“We may not go into the big ranches but we can start in some form by acquiring some lands for that purpose and it may not be owned by individuals. Government can own the ranches where individuals can come and populate and pay some form of token”, the governor stated.

On state police, according to Guardian’s report, Okowa said the way the federal police was presently structured, they won’t be able to police the country effectively, adding: “We are not saying that they are incompetent, but when the police hierarchy is already asking for vigilantes, they are calling for state police.

“So, state police can be organised in a way that it assists the federal security structure, because the level of insecurity in the country now is too high and we need to do something about it very quickly.”