The Middle Belt Patriots, a north-central group, has adamantly opposed a recent directive issued by the federal government for the establishment of grazing reserves for herders in Benue, Kaduna, Kwara, and other states within the region.
In a statement, the group urged state governors to resist pressure from the Federal Government to allocate land to herders for grazing purposes. They expressed concerns that acquiescing to such demands would exacerbate the security challenges in the Middle Belt region and beyond.
This stance comes in response to Bola Tinubu’s call, made during the launch of an agricultural mechanization initiative for food security in Minna, Niger State, for governors to allocate portions of land in their states to Fulani herders for Ruga settlements or ranching.
Steven Kefas, the Middle Belt Patriots’ Director of Media and Strategic Communications, questioned the federal government’s prioritisation of pastoralist interests over those of indigenous populations, whose lands and livelihoods are under threat from armed ethnic militias associated with herders.
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The statement reads: “We of the Middle Belt Patriots vehemently condemn and reject the recent directive from the Federal Government asking state governors to make land available for grazing by Fulani herdsmen.
“This provocative and ill-advised order shows a shocking disregard for the already tenuous security situation in the Middle Belt region that has been under sustained violent attack by armed Fulani ethnic militias.
“We sternly warn the political leaders, monarchs, and youth/community leaders of the Middle Belt region – Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Niger, Kwara, Kogi, and sections of Taraba, Adamawa, Bauchi, Southern Kaduna, and Gombe – to outright disregard and defy this reckless federal directive.
“Capitulating to these demands and ceding more land for grazers will only fan the flames of the ethnic clashes, further the genocidal massacres, escalate the violent displacement of indigenes from their ancestral lands, and jeopardise the fragile peace in a region that has already suffered immensely.” the Group stated.
