Ortom, Ohanaeze, Falana kick over unknown grazing routes

A seething rage is trailing last week’s directive of President Muhammadu Buhari to a committee to reclaim old grazing routes, with Nigerians kicking against the move and warning that the move could court a civil war.

This new move is coming three months after the Southern states have commenced signing laws prohibiting open grazing in the 17 states of the region following their meeting in Asaba, Delta State, on May 11 and some days to the September take-off of the anti-grazing laws in the Southern states.

This, notwithstanding, the Federal Government has continued to tinker with the unpopular policy as it frantically repackages the failed 2017 Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) policy.
   

It was repackaged as the 2019-2028 National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) in 2019 as a child of circumstances due to RUGA’s widespread rejection. Two years after the introduction of NLTP, the package is currently described as the Livestock Intervention Programme (LIP), and part of it is reclaiming the old grazing routes