Governor Olusegun Mimiko has declared that there is no land for a grazing reserves in Ondo State. He also said that the proposal to set up grazing reserves across the country was not in line with the Nigerian constitution of 1999.
Dr. Mimiko disclosed his resolve to reject the proposed national grazing reserves when he spoke on Saturday, May 28, 2016 at a public lecture in Akure organised by members of Pan Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, to commemorate the 90th birthday of its leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti.
Mimiko said the proposed grazing bill might not be passed as the constitution empowers state governors to allocate land and to revoke same. He said that for grazing reserves to established, the constitution of the country has to be amended to pave way for new thinking.
Mimiko also condemned the current wave of violence in the country perpetuated by Fulani herdsmen militia.
“The question now is for how long shall we continue to call for peace in the face of the prevailing situation; definitely something has to be done,” Mimiko told the audience. “No law has vested power on any person be it commission or whatever name it is called to take land for any use without the approval of the governor.”
Delivering a lecture titled “The Yoruba Welfare Ideology and the Future of the Yoruba Nation,” foremost academic, Banji Akintoye, tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to employ peaceful negotiations to find solutions to the challenges confronting the country instead of using military force.
He also urged the President to find ways to knit together an alliance for success and prosperity.
Mr. Akintoye called on leaders of Yoruba nation to work together peacefully with other nationalities within the country to find ways to restructure the Nigerian federation and find ways to revive economic and social development initiatives in all parts of the country.
“President Buhari should lead Nigeria to embark on serious and far reaching discussions with leaders, peoples and the militants of the Niger Delta, the hurting peoples of the Middle Belts desperately in need of security, the Igbo citizens demanding Biafra, the Yoruba people intensely asking for national autonomy for the benefit of all Nigerian peoples and the Hausa -Fulani insisting on an over -centralized federation for the defence of their interest,” he said.
“We must find ways to persuade various aggrieved peoples of Nigeria to stop hitting Nigeria, to lay down their arms now and forever, to join hands with the rest of Nigeria to create a harmonious structure for Nigeria, and to turn Nigeria’s destiny around for the good for all Nigeria.
“The end objective must be to make all Nigerian peoples happy to belong to harmonious family of equal Nigerian nationalities and to give every Nigerian citizen a confident hope in life more abundant.”
Mr. Akintoye, who is the Patron of Oodua Foundation in the Diaspora, also called on the Yoruba nation and other nationalities within the country to support President Buhari’s crusade against corruption.
He charged leaders of Yoruba in the south west to work with other Nigerians to find a lasting solution to the menace of the herdsmen.
He urged the governors of the region to set up security apparatus which would adequately protect farmlands.
