ARE HERDSMEN ABOVE THE LAW? -BY KURTIS ADIGBA

The herdsmen’s economic rights

are not superior to that of the farmers.

We should work to build a country

that protects the rights of all citizens

to live and carry out their duties
without fear or favour.

The Minister of Defence, Mansur Ali, is either tone deaf, or outrightly daft and insensitive, or both. It’s people like him that are making the Buhari-led government look bad. If Ali spoke on behalf of the government as represented by the Security Chiefs, it is even worse.

State governments enacted anti-grazing laws as a means of combating the menace of herdsmen when the Federal Government and its agencies, charged with providing security for lives and property, failed to act. The laws were validly made, and cannot be invalidated by a fiat or by  a bunch of insensitive Security Chiefs!

What the Minister and the government should be doing is to strengthen the enforcement of these laws in a fair and orderly manner, and not demand or request that the states suspend the laws.  Are the herdsmen above the law? NO. Did the states violate any statutes in enacting laws to protect lives and property in their territories? NO.

Our laws recognize and protect rights to life and ownership of property. And whenever there is a breach, there is a remedy. What is the remedy in the Defence Minister’s proposal? The herdsmen’s economic rights are not superior to that of the farmers. We should work to build a country that protects the rights of all citizens to live and carry out their duties without fear or favour.

Mr. President sir, this is your call. You are the President, CEO, and the Commander-in-Chief. All the bulk stops at your desk. If the country falls apart under your leadership, you alone will be blamed. No one will remember any of your appointees!

-Kurtis Adigba, a Barrister-at-Law is a good governance advocate.