Buhari Stoking Civil War With Grazing Sites Review, Says HURIWA

A human rights and advocacy group, Human Rights Writers
Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has warned that President Muhammadu
Buhari’s approval for a review of 368 grazing sites across 25
states in Nigeria was an inevitable invitation to civil war.

The body, therefore, advised the President to perish the
“illegal and toxic idea” unless he nursed an agenda to destabilise
Nigeria.

HURIWA in a media statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade
Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Director Miss Zainab
Yusuf, said it was unthinkable that President Buhari was bent on
coercing native peoples to surrender their ancestral lands for the
purposes of donating such involuntarily by his administration to
Fulani herdsmen.

They added that the preferential treatment by the President of
his kinsmen since coming to office including his failure to arrest
and prosecute suspected armed Fulani herdsmen responsible for some
6,000 deaths since 2015, his decision to give them a lot of
concessions in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development and Water Resources in the execution of projects, were
all unconstitutional acts.

“This is the first time in over 60 years of Nigeria’s
independence that Nigeria is foisted with a fatalistic
administration whose head of executive arm is doing everything
outside of the law to arm twist other ethnicities just so the
president’s kinsmen are awarded the ancestral lands for their
private commercial business of grazing cattle whereas all over the
world those who deal with cows do so using their own landed assets
to set up ranches to undertake their business.

“HURIWA is therefore asking the President to desist from taking
steps and doing things that will plunge Nigeria into a long drawn
civil war. It is ironic that the ridiculous public statement
announcing that the President plans to give grazing sites to Fulani
herdsmen coincided with his briefing to the military Chiefs of
State in which he said he doesn’t want to quit the stage in 2023 as
a failure.

The only way for the President to quit office in 2023 as a
statesman is for him to comply with his constitutional oath of
office and treat all Nigerians equitably and equally and stop
pampering his kinsmen,” they said

They alleged that the President had breached his oath of office
and several sections of the constitution which forbids him from
using his office to confer undue advantage on any section of the
country.

“For the avoidance of doubts and from abundance of scholarly
submissions, Mr. President should note that the Land Use Act,
enacted in 1978, was meant to standardise land administration
systems across the country. It vested all urban land within a state
in the state governor, and all non-urban land in the local
governments in which they are found. (There are currently 36 states
in Nigeria, and 774 local government areas.) The state governor and
local government authorities are empowered by the Act to grant
statutory rights of occupancy.

“The Act also provided for the establishment of land use and
allocation committees to advise state governors, and land
allocation advisory committees to advise local governments.
Excluded from the control of state and local governments are all
lands designated to be federal – for example land occupied by
federal agencies and departments. In 1978 the Land Use Act – which
governs land use and administration in Nigeria, and is included in
the constitution – abolished all existing freehold systems, and
provided for a nationwide leasehold system. The leases are
typically granted for 99 years, the maximum period stipulated by
the Act,” they contended

A human rights and advocacy group, Human Rights Writers
Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has warned that President Muhammadu
Buhari’s approval for a review of 368 grazing sites across 25
states in Nigeria was an inevitable invitation to civil war.

The body, therefore, advised the President to perish the
“illegal and toxic idea” unless he nursed an agenda to destabilise
Nigeria.

HURIWA in a media statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade
Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Director Miss Zainab
Yusuf, said it was unthinkable that President Buhari was bent on
coercing native peoples to surrender their ancestral lands for the
purposes of donating such involuntarily by his administration to
Fulani herdsmen.

They added that the preferential treatment by the President of
his kinsmen since coming to office including his failure to arrest
and prosecute suspected armed Fulani herdsmen responsible for some
6,000 deaths since 2015, his decision to give them a lot of
concessions in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development and Water Resources in the execution of projects, were
all unconstitutional acts.

“This is the first time in over 60 years of Nigeria’s
independence that Nigeria is foisted with a fatalistic
administration whose head of executive arm is doing everything
outside of the law to arm twist other ethnicities just so the
president’s kinsmen are awarded the ancestral lands for their
private commercial business of grazing cattle whereas all over the
world those who deal with cows do so using their own landed assets
to set up ranches to undertake their business.

“HURIWA is therefore asking the President to desist from taking
steps and doing things that will plunge Nigeria into a long drawn
civil war. It is ironic that the ridiculous public statement
announcing that the President plans to give grazing sites to Fulani
herdsmen coincided with his briefing to the military Chiefs of
State in which he said he doesn’t want to quit the stage in 2023 as
a failure.

The only way for the President to quit office in 2023 as a
statesman is for him to comply with his constitutional oath of
office and treat all Nigerians equitably and equally and stop
pampering his kinsmen,” they said

They alleged that the President had breached his oath of office
and several sections of the constitution which forbids him from
using his office to confer undue advantage on any section of the
country.

“For the avoidance of doubts and from abundance of scholarly
submissions, Mr. President should note that the Land Use Act,
enacted in 1978, was meant to standardise land administration
systems across the country. It vested all urban land within a state
in the state governor, and all non-urban land in the local
governments in which they are found. (There are currently 36 states
in Nigeria, and 774 local government areas.) The state governor and
local government authorities are empowered by the Act to grant
statutory rights of occupancy.

“The Act also provided for the establishment of land use and
allocation committees to advise state governors, and land
allocation advisory committees to advise local governments.
Excluded from the control of state and local governments are all
lands designated to be federal – for example land occupied by
federal agencies and departments. In 1978 the Land Use Act – which
governs land use and administration in Nigeria, and is included in
the constitution – abolished all existing freehold systems, and
provided for a nationwide leasehold system. The leases are
typically granted for 99 years, the maximum period stipulated by
the Act,” they contended