By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi has denied claims by President Muhammadu Buhari that the state received N6 billion as grant to create a ranch for Fulani herdsmen who, after being accommodated, murder natives and grab their lands.
Buhari’s heart is at best bizarre and at worst cruel.
Human beings, Nigerians, particularly Northerners, are starving, man! And Buhari is bending over backwards to fend for cows with billions of naira!!
Primary and Junior Secondary School (JSS) are underfunded in 26 states that are too cash-strapped to provide 50 per cent matching grants to collect their allocation from the N29.38 billion with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
UBEC data shows that only 10 states – Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Rivers, Yobe, and Zamfara – provided 50 per cent matching grant and fully accessed their allocation in 2020, according to The Nation.
About 40 per cent (80 million) of the country’s 200 million population are illiterate, which ranks Nigeria among nations with the lowest literacy rates in the world.
Yet, Buhari from the North where illiteracy and poverty ravage in pandemic proportions has voted more than N24 billion to coax or bribe states to create ranches for cattle reared by his illiterate Fulani men who turn round to murder their hosts.
Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu announced on Channels Television on Wednesday that Ebonyi, Yobe, and Katsina States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) got N24 billion from Abuja for ranching, part of Buhari’s Fulani supremacist agenda.
Umahi on Thursday countered vehemently through his own spokesman Francis Nwaze that Shehu had lied for Buhari, in the desperate propaganda of Buhari even against a fellow member of the All Progressives Party (APC).
“Ebonyi State Government never at any time received any money for ranching in the state and will not receive any money for the same purpose as there is no available land for ranching in the state,” Umahi said a statement he issued through Nwaze.
“We have received the news making the rounds that Ebonyi State is among the states in the federation that has received the sum of N6 billion each for ranching as attributed to the Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu while responding to questions on Channels Television on Wednesday night and we wish to clarify as follows:
“That should any Ebonyian opt to engage in personal ranching, Ebonyians should see such venture as a personal decision of such person who must use his/her land for the purpose.
“This is because Ebonyi State Government has continued to maintain that there is no land for ranching in the state and it is not about reneging from the decision.”
Buhari budgets over N24b to protect cows; humans starve, they get killed
Buhari has earmarked more than N24 billion for his ranching project in several states for Fulani herdsmen who murder natives and possess their lands while he looks away even as the terrorists invade military formations to abduct and kill officers.
Fulani terrorists invaded Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) officers’ quarters on Tuesday, killed two and abducted one whom they took away.
The murderers are Buhari’s kinsmen. And that is why he is protecting them.
And they have become so emboldened because Buhari fails to deploy resources to arrest, prosecute, and jail them but rather pampers them to decimate with impunity villages and cities – killing with relish even women and children.
Garba broke the news of the ranch budget on Wednesday, a week after Buhari approved the review of 368 grazing routes across 25 states, as he presses on with placing cattle above human beings who are killed daily in the North by Islamist terrorists.
In Niger State in the North Central, Internally Displaced Person (IDPs) say they now pick grains from the market to eat.
“There is not enough food for us. In fact, for two months now, we have not gotten food from the government or anybody.
“So what I and my children do is to go to the market to pick the grains that fall on the ground when it is being measured for the customer,” said Rayila Bitrus, a 30-year-old in Kuta IDP camp.
“We gather the grains with the sand and when we get home, we separate the sand from the grains and still separate which grain from each other. Then we cook the one we can cook,” she told The Nation.
Also, Buhari gives priority to the protection of cows without taking concrete action against Islamist jihadists who abduct school children, collect ransom for their freedom or torture and murder them and post the video on social media.
The television interview was monitored by The Nation which quoted Shehu as saying that the three states and the FCT each received N6 billion for ranching and other associated purposes.
Shehu, however, did not disclose when they got the fund, though he said Katsina was the latest to get it.
He said the applications of eight other states are being processed and they will get theirs soon and any other state that is interested and meets the requirement will get the same grant.
“Yes, Katsina has been given, but Katsina is not the only state that has been given. So far, about N24 billion has been disbursed to about four states for ranching and associated activities.
“Yobe has been given. Ebonyi has been given and [the] FCT has been given. More than eight other states are now being processed for this payment,” Shehu explained.
He said the programme is one of the ways Buhari intends to end farmers/herders clashes because Buhari is fair and just and wants the clashes to end like every other Nigerian.
The Nation had reported that news that Ebonyi got the money would come as a surprise to many in the South East as Southern Governors say they have no land for ranching.
That has proved to be spot on.
Umahi has denied ever collecting for Ebonyi what is essentially a bribe from Buhari to allow heartless Fulani murders walk in through the front door and behead everyone in a home.
Buhari approves review of 368 grazing routes in 25 states
Despite opposition North and South, Buhari on August 19 approved the recommendations of a committee to review “with dispatch” 368 grazing routes across 25 states “to determine the levels of encroachment.”
His Media Adviser Femi Adesina said the move is to curb clashes between herders and farmers across the country.
But it came three months after Southern Governors banned open grazing in the entire region, which was labelled unconstitutional by federal Attorney-General and Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami.
“The President’s directive followed his approval of the recommendations of a committee chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari,” Adesina said in a statement published by SaharaReporters.
“Among others, the committee had recommended the collection of field data collection on 368 Grazing Reserves across 25 states to assess encroachment and encroachers, stakeholder engagements and sensitisation.
“The committee also recommended production of maps and geo-mapping/tagging of sites, analysis of findings and report preparations as well as design appropriate communication on Grazing Reserves and operations.
“The number of the Grazing Reserves and States were deduced from considerations of existing security concerns and other pre-existing socio-economic conditions.
“The President directed that the assignment be undertaken with dispatch to bring more understanding on the Grazing Reserves, and implementation.”
Committee members and their task
Members of the committee include
· Kebbi State Governor and National Food Security Council Vice Chairman, Abubakar Bagudu
· Ebonyi State Governor and CNEC Sub-Committee for National Livestock Transformation Plan Chairman, David Umahi
· Water Resources Minister Suleiman Adamu
· Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Sabo Nanono
· Environment Minister Mohammad Abubakar
· Deputy Chief of Staff Ade Ipaye
“The Technical Sub-Committee consists of representatives from the seven members of the main committee in addition to representatives from Ministry of Justice, Surveyor-General of the Federation, National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) and National Space Research Development Agency (NASRDA),” Adesina added.
“Among its Terms of Reference, the Committee was to collate from states and confirm the status of all Grazing Reserves, assess the percentage of available land and those with existing encroachment complications for case-by-case resolution in partnership with state governments and the FCT.
“The Committee will also make recommendations for gazetting of ungazetted Grazing Reserves and create a data base of National Cattle Herders and ensure that Grazing Reserves are well communicated to all stakeholders. The inaugural meeting of the Committee was held on May 10, 2021.”