The Coalition of South East Youth Leaders, COSEYL, the apex socio-political youth group in the South East geopolitical zone condemns in strongest terms the approval for review of 368 grazing routes with dispatch by President Muhammadu Buhari despite the condemnation by Nigerians against it. This is an intentional show of wicked ignorance by the president whose interest should be what will bring peace and security.

“The President has not done anything to address the killings in Benue state and other states in the country nor has he addressed the assassination attempt on the life of the Executive Governor of Benue state, Chief Samuel ortom by his Fulani kinsmen, but he is rather interested on how to acquire land through the back door for his Fulani kinsmen”, the group stated.

It continued that, “Land belongs to the people and the president has no right to forcefully take what belongs to the people from them. The Land Use Act gives people right over their lands. Even the governor of the State who the constitution gives the power to hold the land in trust cannot dispossess anyone his land or property.

“We call on the governor of Ebonyi state Engr. David Umahi who is a member of the committee reviewing the vexatious 368 grazing routes to remove the hand of the monkey from soup before it turns to the hand of a human being. what he is part of, is totally against the popular will of the people.

The statement signed by Hon. Goodluck Ibem, President General and Comrade Kanice Igwe, Secretary General of COSEYL, added that “The committee constituted by the President is a total waste of our lean resources. It is disheartening that the president will go borrowing to bankroll such fruitless venture.

“The endorsement by Mr President for the review of vexatious 368 grazing routes shows crass and boorish disrespect to the sacrosanctity and inviolability of life and a calculated attempt to insult Nigerians. The present move will evoke old faultlines that will tear Nigeria apart.

“It is unacceptable that a country like Nigeria with millions of intellectuals of global reputation to be governed by a President like Muhammadu Buhari who is insensitive in all sense of the word.

“It is insensitive and churlish on the part of President Muhammadu Buhari to vehemently canvass 368 grazing routes across 25 states in the country for cattles owned by Fulani herdsmen which has become the most disturbing cause of bloody conflicts across Nigeria leading to the destruction and loss of lives and property of hundreds of thousands of citizens who are mainly farmers.

“The President rather than take steps to order the arrest, swift prosecution and sanction of these armed Fulani herdsmen with blood of innocent citizens on their hands and who have unleashed massive scale of violence, President Buhari has continued to stoke the embers of divisiveness and disunity by seeking to take lands from states to be made open grazing routes for private owners of cattles.

“President Buhari have never for once observed a minute silence to honour the memories of the over hundred thousand Nigerian citizens slaughtered by Fulani terrorists parading as herdsmen, but is more concerned about seizing lands to donate for grazing routes.

“The committee headed by the president’s Chief of staff Mr Gambari reviewing grazing routes across 25 states formed by the president has an agenda to acquire land at all cost for non-Nigerian Fulanis to settle even at the cost of stoking up a civil war.

“This tendency to grab lands across the country for open grazing even when under the land use Act, the governors who have control over lands have rejected open grazing is definitely going to lead to more and more violence, destruction and killings even as no effort is made to disarm the armed herders because they are kinsmen of the president.

“President Muhammadu Buhari’s move will pour fuel into a fire that will become a big wild fire by unilaterally supporting grazing routes for his tribesmen to be assisted by the machinery of the Federal government to illegally snatch lands from Nigerian indigenes under the guise of recovering the so-called grazing routes to be re-allocated to private owners of cattles who are Fulani to dominate the country.

“Acquiring lands for non-Nigerian Fulanis is the only policy that the president has pursued relentlessly with rigour and strength since he come to power in 2015. Too sad!.

“The first duty of any government is that of protecting the society from violence and invasion of their privacy by others, while the second duty is the protection, as far as possible, of every member of the society from injustice or oppression. When a government loses the capacity for both, lawlessness beckons.

“Open grazing violates the rights of Nigerians and endangers the health of citizens through exposure to the elements and a cocktail of diseases.

“We therefore urge the federal government to take the lead in instituting the appropriate social policies that would engender a regime of justice, a major requirement for peace and security. The government could start with the restructuring process. It will resolve a lot of the pressure,” the statement concludes.