Why I Have Not Signed The Anti-Open Grazing Law-Governor Obaseki

The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has said the anti-open grazing law embarked upon by the Southern Governors is easier made than executed.

 

The governor, then, asserted that it did not make sense to pass the anti-open grazing bill into law without arresting and prosecuting offenders of the same law.

 

Obaseki stated this at a stakeholders’ Town-Hall meeting in Benin City, the Edo capital on the proposed Anti-open Grazing Law on Monday.

 

The law which has been passed in some southern states of Nigeria bans the movement of cattle by herders in public places as a measure of curtailing the incessant clashes between herders and farmers. But the decision has been criticized by most northern governors including the Nigerian government.

Obaseki on Monday said that the delay in signing the anti-open grazing bill in his state followed the need to craft an implementable law that will put an end to the growing security and economic challenges in the state.

 

He said, “We are one of the few states that have not signed the bill into law, and the reason is simple; to sign law is very simple, it doesn’t make sense to put out a law you cannot enforce.

 

“The best way of enforcing a law is to bring everybody together to be part of that law. We have a crisis in our country, it is deeply rooted, there are different causes why these are happening, let us go to the root of the causes and resolve it from there.

 

“The anti-grazing law in my view is to deal with some perception, I just want to tell you that this is not an issue between Christians and Muslims, it is not an issue between North and South, it is not an issue between Edo people and Fulani people.”