Delay in enacting anti-open grazing law a coup against the masses of Southern Nigeria, Ezeife tells reluctant governors

The Chairman of Igbo Elders Consultative Forum (IECF) and former governor of Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife (Okwadike) has described the delay in enacting anti-open grazing law as anti-people.

Speaking during a press briefing in his Abuja residence, Ezeife, along with other eminent leaders of the South East, said the outright reluctance of some South-East governors to pass the anti-open grazing law as resolved by Southern Governors’ Forum should be considered a coup against the masses of Southern Nigeria.

He called on South Eastern states governors any state to comply with the resolution of the Southern Governors on anti-open grazing, stressing that failure to comply would be insensitive, unpatriotic, and “considered a coup against the masses of Southern Nigeria”.

He condemned the rate at which armed Fulani terrorists and herdsmen were killing innocent youths in the South-East and the South-South, saying is worrisome.

Ezeife said that IECF has resolved that henceforth they would hold the governors in the South East responsible for any killing from clashes between herdsmen-farmers clashes in Igbo land.

He said, “Our attention has been drawn to the tactical delay or even outright reluctance of some states in the Southeast to pass anti-open grazing law as resolved by the recent meeting of the Southern Governors’ Forum that each state in the South should enact an anti-open grazing law by September 1, 2021.

“It is expected that every state in the South-east should not only pass the anti-open grazing law within this period but also put in place appropriate mechanisms for immediate implementation of the law in the state, otherwise the laudable objective of enacting the law for the purpose of minimizing conflicts between farmers and herders, as well as promoting ranching and other modern pastoral methods, will be defeated.

“Any state that has failed to comply with the resolution of the Southern Governors’ is insensitive, unpatriotic, and anti-people as the reluctance or arrogant refusal to comply with that decision is considered a coup against the masses of Southern Nigeria.

“While we commend Enugu and Abia States for their efforts to empanel legislation on anti-open grazing, we urge the other states in the South, especially in the South East and other Igbo-speaking states of the South-South to put in place necessary machinery to comply with the Southern Governors’ resolution or be liable for aborting the popular will and desire of our people.

“The Governors and the State Assemblies of delinquent states, especially in the South-East should be held responsible for non-compliance.”

On 2023 Presidency, he canvassed for micro-zoning to the South East.

Ezeife however warned politicians involved in the alleged plot to scuttle the zoning of the 2023 presidential ticket of the major political parties to the South should be prepared to struggle without the votes of the South East states.

He said, “We also view with grave concern the concerted efforts of some unpatriotic Nigerians, in concert with some of our sons and political leaders, to scuttle the resolution of Southern Governors that the 2023 presidency of Nigerian be zoned to the South for the sake of peace, justice, equity and fairness.

“The Presidency has to be zoned to the South, and we believe that our brothers of the South-South and South-west shall be considerate enough to micro-zone it to the South-east.

“We also hasten to warn that any political party that tinkers will this laudable demand that the 2023 Presidency be zoned to the South, and do otherwise by zoning elsewhere, should be prepared to struggle without the votes of our people.”

They called on politicians in the South West and South South to micro-zone the next Presidency to the South East region.

On restructuring of Nigeria and control of resources by the regions, IECF warned that any political party that tinkers the zoning of the Presidency to the South “should be prepared to struggle without the votes of our people.”

Ezeife also called on the executive to take urgent steps towards restructuring of the country, saying that without it Nigeria might disintegrate.

He said, “Restructuring includes resource control, but it is not limited to control of resources. There is this feeling and it is wrong to think that if we restructure the country, no oil money will go to the North again. That is not true.

“It is not political to, one day, cut off the supply of money to any State or Local Government in the name of restructuring. We can nationalise the major mineral resources and then give a higher percentage of revenue to the region where it is coming from.

“But every Nigerian must gain from what is in Nigeria. Without restructuring, we are not going to make progress as a nation. The country will disintegrate.”