Barely 24 hours after AOKOYA, a pan-Yoruba coalition kicked against grazing zone in Yorubaland, another pan-Yoruba organisation, Think Yoruba First Worldwide, has lent its voice to opposition against the idea being mulled by the federal government.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had directed a few days ago that the governors of the 36 states of the federation should give lands to herders for grazing in order to curb the incessant farmer-herder crisis across the country.
In a statement signed by Oladimeji Bolarinwa, president of Think Yoruba First organisation, the group said: “We will like to humbly join the voices of progress in Nigeria that we are against such policy and solution because it will further exacerbate the current ethnic tensions in the country and might lead Nigeria into an uncontrollable conflagration in the next few years.
“Where has giving Indigenous lands to nomadic settler herdsmen solved any security problem in the world? Is it in Sudan? South Sudan? Mali? Burkina Faso? 18th century USA? or Southern Kaduna in Nigeria? None!
“Land is the most important resources and heritage of Indigenous people around the world. It is therefore not a gift to pander to any non-indigenous settlers with AK 47 in order to look for graveyard peace.”
TYF noted that ever since grazing reserves had been given to Fulani herders in the 1980s in Southern Kaduna, there has not been any solution to the killing of farmers and indigenous villagers in the area.
“Why is the federal government of Nigeria trying to implement solutions that has turned Southern Kaduna into a perpetual warzone in Nigeria?, the group queried, adding “Is the president ready to contend with large-scale breakdown of law and order in Nigeria?”
Nigeria, the group contended, was not a nation, but a country of nations, adding that the Fulani nation made up of most of the nomadic herdsmen was not a special race in Nigeria, as they were limited to their northern homeland in Nigeria where they have their Emirates via conquest in the 19th century.
The Yoruba people, TYF argued, are not a conquered race and, therefore, are not going to surrender one inch of their land to foreign herders with a global reputation for violence and unwanton bloodshed of indigenous people.
“We hereby admonish the president to keep those RUGA policies to the northern part of Nigeria and not in any part of the Yoruba speaking space.
“May Olodumare continue to bless Yoruba race, Nigeria and president Bola Ahmed Tinubu”, TYF said.
