Still on herdsmen attacks……

I’m not a great fan of Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose. I am on record for criticizing him a number of times over some issues of governance.

However, on the menace of herdsmen and the attendant security challenges, I give Fayose full marks for the way he has handled the issue through legislation. He did not wait for President Buhari, like other state governors do, to come from Abuja to secure his state and protect his people.

Fayose showed courage and commitment to tackling the herdsmen menace by proposing the Prohibition of Cattle and other Ruminants Grazing in Ekitii State Bill 2016 and subsequently signing it into law. The Law prohibits open and night grazing (among other related things) in the state.

To further strengthen the law and add bite to its enforcement, Fayose inaugurated the Ekiti Grazing Enforcement Marshals (EGEM) to see to the implementation of the law. Even though the law was initially received with mixed feelings among Nigerians, the reality today however is that since he put in place measures to control the movement of cattle in his state, there has been no report of herdsmen attack in Ekiti State. That shows that to a considerable extent he has tamed herdsmen/community clashes in his state.

Other state governors and their state houses of assembly should emulate him and perhaps learn from him how he and his state assembly went about it. A governor with all the instrument of state power and law behind him should not be complaining that he lacks the power to protect his people, or be waiting for President Buhari to come from far away Abuja to secure his state.

All the insinuation that because Buhari is Fulani – same tribe as most herdsmen – and therefore would block any state governor from taking action against killer herdsmen, has been belied by Fayose. It is at best a defeatist and escapist excuse. Buhari did not stop Fayose from initiating moves to regulate cattle grazing in his state. Nor did the herdsmen themselves dare him.

This is as I see it