By Jude Owuamanam, Managing Editor Northern Operations
JOS (Sundiata Post) – Secretary-General of Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria (GAFDAN), Alhaji Sale Bayeri, has said that banning open grazing in Plateau State would create more problems than it was intended to serve.
Bayeri said that this is because the Fulani do not know any other method of grazing their cattle, saying that any attempt to confine them to a place was a sure invitation to anarchy.
He spoke to Sundiata Post in Jos, the Plateau State capital, on the heels of the request by Plateau youths that the government should as a matter of urgency enact s law to ban open grazing in the state.
However, Bayeri posited that such measure should not be contemplated in Plateau State because it would be tantamount to banning a people’s way of life.
He said, “Saying that you will ban open grazing on the Plateau is laughable because the average Fulani man does not know any other way of grazing his cows. This is a practice that started right from Adam and for you to say you want to remove or curb it is an invitation to anarchy really.
“If you want to ban open grazing, you can equally ban open farming because the two agricultural activities go hand in hand and you can’t have one without the other. You can eat rice without meat for the soup or stew”.
He added, “Again the resistance that will come with such measure is not what Plateau needs at this time. We are passing through turbulent times and we are trying to make peace. So we should not put in place any measure that will make that peace unattainable.”
Meanwhile, youths in the state are unrelenting in their efforts to ban open grazing of cattle in the state.
Today youths across the Middle Belt region are expected to converge on the Plateau State House of Assembly to chat with the executive and legislative arms of the state government on the issue of open grazing.
A statement by the President, Middle Belt Youth Council, Mr. Emma Zopmal, said the aim was to compel a ban on open grazing in the state.
The statement requested the participation of all youths from the region irrespective of ethnic or political backgrounds.
