I am waiting to see who’ll trespass, break our grazing law -Ortom

As grazing law in Benue State takes effect from this month, Governor Samuel Ortom warns that anyone that breaks the law would be dealt with. In this interview with some journalists in Makurdi, Ortom said henceforth any one that wants to rear animals in the  state must ranch. Edozie Udeze was there

YOU called on writers to partner with you on advocacy for ranches, how far do you want this to go?

I want it to go to all the nooks and crannies of this country because the menace of herdsmen attack is not just on Benue people but it is on other Nigerians as well. We decided to champion the cause of restoring peace, orderliness and security for our own state and I appreciate the fact that other states are already keying into this programme. That is a global best practice for cattle farming or livestock farming and by the way, livestock or cattle farming is a business. You do it to get income to sustain yourself just like we here are farmers and we farm to sustain ourselves; so it should not be done at the detriment of other people. While we are living, we should also respect the rights of other people to live. It should not be at the expense of others and so I would want this thing to go beyond Benue State because when it happens to another state I won’t be a happy man. I know what we suffered between 2012 and 2016. We have estimated that we lost more than N95billion worth of goods and property, excluding human beings that died. If you go to the rural areas you’ll see schools, churches, hospitals, houses, farmlands and all that destroyed. For me, in 2013, I lost my rice farm and farm implements. My ancestral home was razed down. My entire village was razed down. More than 50 people were killed in one day. So, this is a very big challenge. For us to have arrived at sending an executive bill to the House of Assembly, we fasted and prayed and God gave us that wisdom to have a permanent solution to this problem. Go to America, go to Europe, go to Asia and even on African soil, Kenya, Tanzania are doing it; ranching. Small countries like Swaziland, I was there four years ago and their major earning is beef but they ranch, so why can’t we ranch in Nigeria? Where is the land with the upsurge of population? In the fifties when people argued that they had cattle routes and grazing areas, I ask them what was the total population of Nigeria; less than 40 million people. Today in 2017, I can approximate it to be over 200 million because the projection in 2012 was 170 million so by today we should be over 200 million. But what is the land mass?  What was it in 1950, 923, 000 square kilometres. Today it is the same 923, 000 square kilometres but even less because of the ceding of Bakassi to the Cameroon, so we have less land mass than what used to obtain when we were less in population than now. So, it’s unfortunate that we have kept sealed lips and honestly I feel so sad but I will continue to do what is right, as far as I know, as a person. Even if I die today, I know I have done the right thing. I am championing the cause of ensuring that we have ranching, which is the global best practice and is the only solution. I have challenged herdsmen, I have challenged any one, including Miyetti Allah that I am calling for the arrest of the leadership of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore that took us to court for a law that we legitimately passed and is threatening to invade our state; a law that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria permits us to put in place; a law that seeks to protect lives and property; a law that seeks to bring peace to our people, then you take us to court. I have said that the security agencies should arrest them for threatening me and my state that they would make the law not to function. I am waiting to see who will trespass. I am waiting to see who will not respect that law and is in Benue State. I have said it; I am not forcing anyone to live in Benue State. If you want to do open grazing, you can go to any other state that land is available. For me here, we are farmers and we cannot pay salaries as at when due as at today; so we want to have food on the table for everyone and we have massively encouraged our people to go into agriculture and they have done that. There is no single hectare of land available for grazing in Benue State. If you want to stay in Benue State, we are not sending you away; you can stay but if you have cattle, you must ranch them. If don’t ranch, the law will catch up with you and you will be sent to jail. There is no two ways about it. And we are not just talking about cattle; we are talking about livestock; so pigs, goats and all of them are all involved. So, I want as many Nigerians that can support us in advocacy and let people understand because the misconception is that the law is targeting individuals or Fulani men or certain ethnic groups and so on; it’s not right. The law seeks to ensure peace for every one living in Benue State, including Fulani herdsmen and any other person whatsoever. We want peace. And so, even the herdsmen, when they ranch, the law will protect them from cattle rustlers. There are stiff penalties waiting for cattle rustlers. So, we would appreciate this, whatever you can do within your powers to reach out to many as are ready to listen to us, please do and I believe that God will bless you. Because we have suffered enough and we think that this law is the solution and I have challenged anyone out there who thinks that there is a better option of ensuring peace and security for Benue State to bring it on the table. We are ready to call Benue stakeholders to review the whole thing again. But outside that, if they cannot challenge us with a superior policy that will restore peace, they should keep quiet and respect our views.

Why are you handing over private schools to the owners?

We have to make adjustments to meet with the economic realities in which we have found ourselves today as a government. It’s no longer news that we cannot pay salaries as at when due and we are trying to shelve off responsibilities that are making it impossible for us to pay salaries as at when due. If you go out there, private schools and mission schools are doing better than what government is doing, so why should we continue to sponsor them? That is the point. We have discussed with owners of schools and that was our agreement with them. We feel that we are better off, so that government can concentrate more on its schools instead of having half-baked graduates from these schools, we should concentrate on our schools and lay a sound foundation for our children. We want to go back to those days when government schools were respected. That is what motivated us and we are going to do it.

Can you do it within the time frame you set between now and January 2019?

It’s a process that we have to start. Others did not do it but we want to do it. I think it’s the way out. Government schools will still continue but if you want to go to a private school, you go there. Even as it is now, people are going to private schools so it doesn’t stop anything. We will continue.

How are you able to provide dividends of democracy?

We are prudent and it has helped us. Here in Benue State we are very prudent with the little resource we have. One, as a government that has the fear of God we promised the people even before we came in that we will ensure truthfulness, equity, fairness, justice, transparency, accountability and selflessness. We are not looking at what we can get but we are looking at what we can impact on the people. And so that has guided us. Despite the challenges we have, the little that comes in, initially things were not as bad as they are today but whatever came in we were able to apply it on those projects and the funds that came in for specific projects were channelled to those projects and that is why we have impacted today on several communities. When it comes to education, Benue State University has been paid up to date. When we came they were on strike for months. We negotiated with them and because of the attachment we have in promoting education and developing education we have paid them up to date. At the primary school we were able to secure N3.8 billion loan to match with UBEC and today we have N7.6 billion to promote primary education. Construction of new class room blocks, provision of instructional materials, provision of desks and all that is going on all over the 276 councils wards in Benue State; some are completed, some are ongoing, some will soon be completed. We are renovating our secondary schools to bring them to a standard that our children would be proud of. In the health sector, we have been able to record milestones.

What is Benue doing to improve on rice production?

We have done so much since we came in two years ago. In fact, we were almost losing our honour as the food basket of the nation. When we came in, we put agriculture top on our priority list and today we have bounced back. We have been able to partner with the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), we paid the counterpart funding that was needed and today, the massive impact of IFAD on Benue State agriculture is noticed in almost all the three senatorial districts. In rice production we have done so well and we are willing to close the gaps. If you go out to various communities in Benue State, you will see massive rice cultivation and we are looking forward to a bountiful harvest this year. In Soya beans we are also doing very well. It is just the market that we are looking for. Maize, sesame seed, yam, and cassava are also there. In fact

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