We are told that the 17 governors of southern Nigeria will be meeting once again today over issues that affect the region. Before they go into the session, they should remind themselves of the fact that their battle with the sacred cow has just begun.
If you have cause, as I had recently, to traverse some contiguous states of southern Nigeria for whatever reason, you will come to the painful conclusion that the cow, actually and symbolically, has become a sacred animal in Nigeria. Like the Hindus who treat the cow as a sacred creature that should not be harmed, the cow in Nigeria has become a golden calf. You yield the ground to it wherever it is found. It enjoys the first right of way. As a matter of fact, the fear of the cow is becoming the beginning of wisdom in Nigeria.
Even the rearer is becoming as sacred as the cow he herds. Like his article of trade which has become untouchable, the herder is held in awe. He is beyond reproach. His trade, pastoralism, as an institution or custom, is held to be above criticism. You confront it or the practitioner at your own peril.
Recently, however, the southern governors dared to dare. They rose against the sacred cow and its equally sacred herder. The governors had, against all odds, stood up to be counted. They threw overboard, even if momentarily, the untouchable status of the cow and its herder. They rejected open grazing of cattle as a way of life in Nigeria.
They had a good reason to do so. The armed herder has become a threat to peace and security in the country. The unspeakable insecurity that the country is grappling with resides largely in the unwholesome activities of the herder and his cow. On the strength of this, the governors came together in Asaba, the Delta State capital, to brainstorm on the way forward. They approached the issue with zest and gusto. They expressed disappointment with the system that has made their people strangers in their own land. They were convinced, on deeper reflection, that the unitary order, which the military foisted on the country in the name of federalism, has run its full, infamous course. Consequently, they called for a restructured arrangement that would move the country away from its present anaemic state. On the strength of that they sent out a clear message to all concerned. The immediate culprit was the sacred cow. They imposed a ban on open grazing in their territories. They were compelled to do so because open grazing has become the launchpad for unbridled killing and maiming. The governors said they have had enough. They said they would make their pronouncement actionable by getting their state legislatures to enact laws that would make the ban legal and legitimate.
However, a few weeks after, revisionists went to work. An unknown, perhaps non-existent group, stepped out to remind the governors that the herder has a job to do; that he cannot sit askance and watch the governors ride roughshod over him. To bring their objection home, they targeted Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and his Delta State for armed confrontation. The group threatened to unleash jihad in the state, if the ban on open grazing was not reversed. Okowa, who naturally is not given to loud talks, did not respond to the gibberish. He has not betrayed any trepidation either. He has carried on with the composure and maturity of someone who knows what he is doing.
Before the threat from the innocuous group, Okowa has had cause to defend the decision of the governors. He never wavered. Some of the other governors who were at the Asaba summit have also stood their ground. The governors of Abia, Rivers, Ebonyi and Ondo states, among others, have spoken stridently in defense of the decision the governors reached on May 11, 2021. But they do not seem to have gone beyond this. Some eight weeks after the Asaba summit, the pronouncement of the southern governors has remained a paper tiger. It has not gone beyond mere declaration of intent. The sacred cow and its herder are still unperturbed. They are still roaming freely in southern territories without let or hindrance. In Lagos State, you can see them in areas as central as Western Avenue, Surulere. They are everywhere on Lagos-Ibadan expressway. In fact, no South-West state is free from open grazing. The same is true of South-East and South-South states. In Imo State particularly, the parlous security situation has given the herder more wings to fly with. Before the army of occupation seized the state, the herder and his cow had largely disappeared following the onslaught from Eastern Security Network. But with the military invasion, which has seen Igbo youths being labelled as IPOB members and quickly eliminated merely on the strength of that accusation, the herder has resurfaced with his cow. With the no-government situation that Imo faces, the situation in the state has become worse than it was before the Asaba declaration.
But if the Imo situation is circumstantial, we cannot say the same thing of other southern states. So far, there is no indication that any of the states, with the exception of Ondo, has enacted a law against open grazing. In the face of this inaction, the question of enforcement does not arise. The result is that cows have continued to roam freely in the affected states. The impunity and killings by armed Fulani marauders have continued unabated. Farmers are still not free to enter their farms for fear of the blood-sucking demons who masquerade as herdsmen.
Under the circumstance, the herdsman is having a field day. The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACABAN) is having a good laugh. It has been telling us that open grazing cannot be banned in the South or any other part of Nigeria. MACABAN enjoys the support of the Buhari presidency. The government is coming up with something as bizarre as open grazing. It wants to allocate limitless portions of grazing areas to the herders. This has been christened grazing routes. But the South says such routes do not exist in its territory. Regardless of that, the Fulani order, which the Nigerian presidency has become, is pushing ahead with the idea of grazing routes. There have been pockets of objections from some southern governors. But their unity on this matter looks shaky. Have the buccaneers infiltrated the rank of southern governors? Will they abandon their flag? Perhaps their meeting in Lagos today will throw light on this haziness.
But the reality of the situation at the moment is that nothing has changed; and there is no indication as yet that something is about to change. People are then left to wonder what all that fury was about. What, indeed, was the point of all the fuss that was made of the Asaba summit, if the decisions reached were done for the sake of it? Will the Lagos summit bring about the much desired difference? We wait and see.