The Yoruba Council of Elders,
YCE, on Thursday, rejected proposed establishment of cattle colony in any party
of Yoruba land.
The elders met in Ibadan, the Oyo
State capital where they deliberated on pressing national issues.
The group also called out some
northern governors for gathering to endorse President Muhammadu Buhari for a
second term barely 24 hours after killing of innocent Nigerians in their
numbers by suspected Fulani herdsmen.
The Yoruba elders also called on
Buhari to change his position on the agitation for restructuring of Nigeria.
YCE President General, Chief
Idowu Shofola, spoke with reporters after a three-hour meeting on the
state-of-the-nation by the council.
He said, “We don’t subscribe to
the idea of cattle colony. We feel that cattle rearing and farming are
businesses. If you want to go into a business, you will provide the needs for
yourself. You don’t need the government to do it for you.
“Whatever business you want to
do, you have to provide the money, either you have it or you go for loan from a
bank, or you look for a big brother to help you out or whatever.”
Shofola added that as presently
conceded in the law, the land “does not belong to the Federal Government. It
belongs to the state under our law. Therefore, the federal government cannot
just come to any part of Nigeria and say this land is this or that.
“We do not think it is necessary
for anybody or herdsmen to come and do whatever they like. Let them go to the
government there, buy or lease land in terms agreeable to both sides at their
own expense.”
The council Secretary, General,
Dr. Kunle Olajide, also added, “YCE rejects cattle colony and grazing reserves
as a solution to this problem. YCE believes strongly that the beginning of
solutions to this problem is restructuring.
“Once the country is effectively
restructured, foreigners will even come to Nigeria to do business. It is not
the government that provides them with facilities. So, once the country is
effectively restructured, it will take care of all these anomalies.
“If the government is advocating
we should all go back to agriculture and then goes on encouraging a section of
the country to go with cows and ravage farmlands and farm crops, you can see a
contradiction, and that is a paradox. YCE rejects, in totality, cattle colony
and grazing reserves.
“Three weeks after gruesome
murder, no arrest has been made. YCE is alarmed that the leadership of an
association, Myetti Allah (an umbrella body of Fulani herdsmen), who had openly
been issuing threats have not been questioned. The kid glove treatment of
Myetti Allah speaks volume about the neutrality of the presidency on this
matter.
“YCE is also disturbed by the
apparent insensitivity of some political leaders to the current worrisome
situation in the country. Barely 24 hours, after the gruesome murder in Benue
State, a group of governors appeared on national television endorsing President
Buhari for 2019 election, in violation of regulations of the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC).”
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