The herdsmen’s economic rights
are not superior to that of the farmers.
We should work to build a country
that protects the rights of all citizens
to live and carry out their duties
without fear or favour.
without fear or favour.
The Minister of Defence, Mansur Ali, is either tone deaf, or outrightly daft and insensitive, or both. It’s people like him that are making the Buhari-led government look bad. If Ali spoke on behalf of the government as represented by the Security Chiefs, it is even worse.
State
governments enacted anti-grazing laws as a means of combating the menace of
herdsmen when the Federal Government and its agencies, charged with providing
security for lives and property, failed to act. The laws were validly made, and
cannot be invalidated by a fiat or by a bunch of insensitive
Security Chiefs!
What
the Minister and the government should be doing is to strengthen the
enforcement of these laws in a fair and orderly manner, and not demand or
request that the states suspend the laws. Are the herdsmen above the law?
NO. Did the states violate any statutes in enacting laws to protect lives and
property in their territories? NO.
Our
laws recognize and protect rights to life and ownership of property. And
whenever there is a breach, there is a remedy. What is the remedy in the
Defence Minister’s proposal? The herdsmen’s economic rights are not superior to
that of the farmers. We should work to build a country that protects the rights
of all citizens to live and carry out their duties without fear or favour.
Mr.
President sir, this is your call. You are the President, CEO, and the
Commander-in-Chief. All the bulk stops at your desk. If the country falls apart
under your leadership, you alone will be blamed. No one will remember any of
your appointees!
-Kurtis Adigba, a Barrister-at-Law is a
good governance advocate.
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