Why I won’t ban open grazing in Edo -Obaseki

<p><strong>Edo State governor&comma; Godwin Obaseki has revealed why he cannot ban open grazing in the state&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Speaking at a stakeholders town hall meeting in Benin on Monday&comma; the governor said the ban on open grazing law cannot be  implemented&comma; hence no need to enforce it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Southern governors in September agreed to ban open grazing of cattle&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While majority of the governors have passed the law&comma; Obaseki said it is important to first address the root of the acrimony between herders and host communities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h1><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;lagos-governor-sanwo-olu-laments&sol;"><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;339966&semi;">Lagos Governor&comma; Babajide Sanwo-Olu Laments<&sol;span><&sol;a><&sol;h1>&NewLine;<p>The governor said the country’s leaders must not &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;play politics” with the issue&comma; adding that they must deal with it &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;honestly and openly”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are one of the few states that have not signed the bill into law&comma; and the reason is simple&period; To sign a law is very simple&comma; it doesn’t make sense to put out a law you cannot enforce&comma;” Obaseki&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The best way of enforcing a law is to bring everybody together to be part of that law&period; We have a crisis in our country&comma; it is deeply rooted&comma; there are different causes why these are happening&comma; let us go to the root of the causes and resolve it from there&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;People have said that we have lived a hundred years together in harmony before now&comma; why are we now having this problem today&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;If we don’t go to the reason why&comma; then we will be scratching the surface&period; Let us start by understanding why we are having this challenge&period; To sign a law is very easy&comma; it doesn’t make sense to put out a law that you cannot enforce&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The anti-grazing law in my view is to deal with some perception&period; I just want to tell you that this is not an issue between Christians and Muslims&comma; it is not an issue between north and south&comma; it is not an issue between Edo people and Fulani people&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;As long as we have decided that we will eat meats and drink milk&comma; we will now have to sit down and rearrange the business on how we will get the people who are producing the meat on how they must organise themselves&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Let us not play politics with this issue&comma; let us deal with this issue honestly and openly&period; There are security implications because some people have now joined and using these herders to perpetrate insecurity&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>By Doris Israel Ijeoma<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;