Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said he gets angry whenever people blame Buhari for not making comments concerning the destruction done by herdsmen, and other national issuesThe ex-president aired his thoughts in Abuja on Tuesday at an agriculture seminar in Abuja organised by Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO). . . . He 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, who questioned what had happened to the grazing reserves and routes? explicted that during the colonial era, certain areas were reserved as grazing zones in most parts of the North. . . . “I need to state that it is the responsibility of local governments to take care of them.
Now, because states should have even done a lot better, 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.”
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