“ don’t stop people’s means of living and expect to reign."
Gan Allah Fulani Development Association has warned of imminent crisis, if the Southern governors go ahead to implement their decision on ban of open grazing in the entire South.
The group described the resolution as unfortunate and capable of putting the unity of the country in jeopardy, according to Daily Post reports.
The Southern governors in a meeting held in Lagos on 5th July, reaffirmed their earlier resolution reached in Asaba, the Delta State Capital to ban open grazing in the South.
The governors set September 1, as deadline for the ban to take effect, and mandated each state governor to forward a bill to that effect to their states houses of assembly.
The decision did not go down well with Northern groups
GAFDAN National Secretary, Ibrahim Abdullahi while reacting to this said the resolution is “practically impossible” because the governors have not provided alternative for the herders, stressing that any attempt to implement it will only breed hatred and crisis between the North and the South.
He said banning open grazing without providing an alternative for the herders is an indirect way of sending them out of the South, and the North may retaliate by asking southerners living in the North to leave the region.
“If you stop open grazing in the South, you are simply saying that those people should move to the North or they should move to other parts of the country. What happens if those in the North also ask the southerners to leave?
Are we promoting unity or hatred? What the governors are saying is practically impossible and it does nor promote the unity of this country.
“You don’t stop people’s means of living and expect to reign. So, the implication is that the unity of Nigeria is going to be in question.
“You don’t expect those that will be affected to return to the North and live in peace with people from the South living in the North,” He concluded.