FORMER
President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday declared that it was not the job of
President Muhammadu Buhari to address the deadly clashes between herdsmen and
farmers.
This is coming
as he decried the increasing level of hunger being experienced by Nigerians
across the country, stressing that it was sad to note that about 65 per cent of
the citizens were faced with food insecurity.
He also urged
the Federal Government to drastically reduce or ban the importation of staple
food crops, as Nigeria had the potential to produce most of the agricultural
products that were being imported into the country.
Obasanjo spoke
during the 23rd Annual LAPO Development Forum which had as its theme ‘Food
Security and Sustainable Agriculture in Nigeria: Challenges and Opportunities,’
and was organised by the Lift Above Poverty Organisation in Abuja.
The former
President stated that he often got angry whenever people blamed Buhari for not
making comments as regards the destruction done by herdsmen, noting that the
issue was not a national but a state and local governments matter.
Obasanjo said,
“And some of the words that have been coming out from our leaders, particularly
from state governors, are not helpful; they are not helpful! This issue is not
a federal issue and another thing I don’t like about it is that when you talk
of Fulani herdsmen, people talk of the President.
“Now because
the President of Nigeria is a Fulani man, then you would expect him to jump up
and say this one is condemned and all that, no. That is not his job. And when
people make comments like this, it annoys me. They say the President hasn’t
said anything about this, that he used to be the patron of something…, but I
believe that the ranching thing failed because the states and the local
governments failed to do what they ought to have done.”
He noted that
during the colonial era, some areas were reserved as grazing zones in most
parts of the North, but wondered what had happened to the grazing reserves and
routes.
Obasanjo said,
“I need to state that it is the responsibility of local governments to take
care of them. Now, states should have even done a lot better, (but) they
haven’t, and then when you have cattle rustling, herdsmen and farmers’
conflict, you try to make it a national issue. But it is not really a national
issue.
“For me, the herdsmen
are entitled to be able to look after their animals but they are not entitled
to destroy the crops of the rural farmers, it is unacceptable.”
The former
President, however, wondered how Fulani herdsmen were able to arm themselves
with sophisticated weapons and maintained that it was not necessary to take the
issue to the National Assembly as it should be addressed at the state and local
governments levels.
On the level
of hunger in the land, Obasanjo stated that the purchasing power of many households
in Nigeria had plummeted and that food insecurity among Nigerians was rising
fast.
“In 2016, the
percentage of food insecure households increased from 33 per cent in
February/March to 38 per cent in June/July, that is an increase of five per
cent, which was as at June/July. We don’t know what it is now,” he said.
The former
President explained that the reason why the naira had continued to fall against
the United States’ dollar was because “the country spends more than it earns.”
He called for
a reduction of importation of certain items, particularly food items that could
be produced in Nigeria, adding that it was “unpardonable for Nigerians to spend
huge funds importing toothpicks.”
According to
him, Nigeria’s appetite for imported products had made it difficult for the
country to be able to produce enough food to feed itself.
Obasanjo
advised the government to see agriculture as a sector that had the capacity to
lift Nigeria out of recession and recommended that efforts should be made to
guarantee food security for Nigerians.
Earlier in his
remarks, the Founder of LAPO, Dr. Godwin Ehigiamusoe, had stated that the forum
was organised in order to focus on issues and challenges of development, as
well as address the imperatives of food security within the context of
diversification of the national economy. Punch
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