The Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has likened President Muhammadu Buhari’s method of tackling insecurity in Nigeria to that of the Taliban, the terrorist group which recently took over Afghanistan.
Governor Ortom made the remark on Friday in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase.
The statement was titled, “Presidency turning Nigeria to a cow republic”, in reaction to Buhari’s approval of the recommendations of a committee to review “with dispatch,” 368 grazing sites across 25 states in the country.
The governor said It was clear that the Presidency wanted to plunge the country into avoidable crisis.
He said, “In a country where insecurity has reached an all-time high with hundreds being killed by armed herdsmen, bandits, and other terrorists, the Presidency is only bordered about animals and their safety and is deploying all machinery and arsenals of government to impose grazing reserves and cattle routes on Nigerians. This is unacceptable.
“The Buhari administration has turned a blind eye to the unimaginable levels of encroachment on lands belonging to Nigerians by cattle. Mr President has never come out even once to condemn activities of herdsmen and the attacks they visit on innocent people. The only time the President is heard speaking about atrocities of the herders is when he defends them.
“It is now clear that the Presidency wants to plunge the country into avoidable crisis. Otherwise, what is the justification for President Buhari’s insistence that grazing reserves be established across the country when Nigerians have openly kicked against the policy and have embraced ranching in place of open grazing?
“What is the difference between the Buhari administration’s approach to insecurity and the Taliban agenda in Afghanistan?
“It is now evident that the government at the centre prioritizes the welfare of cattle over human beings and is bent on taking Nigeria back to the pre-colonial era with some snippets of a society wherein the words of Thomas Hobbes, life has become ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’.
“The country has been turned to a cow republic by the present administration and the basic principles of equality, justice, fairness and equity which engender peace and suppress anarchy are non-existent.”
