Fulani socio-cultural group, Miyetti Allah Kautal has responded to the threat by the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, to ban open grazing in the Nigerian capital.
Recall that Wike had earlier disclosed that he would consult with relevant stakeholders to effectively enforce the ban on open cattle grazing.
He said: “Before we take any decision, we will do proper consultations so that nobody will say you never alerted them, you never interacted with them before you took that decision.
Replying to the minister in a statement on Saturday, the National Secretary of the body, Saleh Alhassan Kubah, mocked Wike, saying that his threat is inconsequential.
Saleh added that Wike must find a way for the cows as most of the cattle belong to the elite.
The statement reads: “Where is the grazing land in Abuja? Is it inside the building they will graze? The thing is, Wike is not consequential. We have seen Ortom come and go.
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“So we don’t want to engage Wike, who has to take ‘Ogogoro’ before he goes to the office every morning.
“You’ve not heard it before? He said it himself. Let him deliver services in the FCT. We are waiting to see the good work he will do. You know he’s working for our party, so I can’t criticise him.
“He’s our minister. So I don’t want to start fighting our minister. It’s not consequential because there’s no grazing area in Abuja.
“All those cattle you see there belong to the elite there, so he’ll find a way for them. Wike doesn’t merit our responses. Let him deal with the massive abandoned buildings.
“Let him collect tax from all those houses nobody is occupying. Let him develop the city. Let him take care of the indigenous people that have been neglected, the Gwari people.
“He’s from Port Harcourt, an Ikwerre man. He knows how they behave in Port Harcourt. If the Gwari people give him 10 per cent of how Ikwerre people behave in Port Harcourt, he will know how to deal with them. Let him develop the rural areas, and the satellite towns and give them amenities. Power is transient.”
”No matter how it is, he will leave very soon. We can’t engage him. He can’t get new information from us. He’s an attention seeker. Is there any grazing land around the Villa?
“Or, is it the sight of cows that people don’t want to see? Are cows not the beauty of the Northern geography? You want to eat cows, but you don’t want to see them; is it not contradictory?
“If there are no cows in the northern geography, what you will be seeing is a crisis caused by the spirits of the land. The land won’t be stable [because the cows need to move for the spirits to be happy]. It is their environment.
“He can’t chase the cows away. Who will chase the cows away in the northern territory? Nobody can chase them. We’re going nowhere.
“Let him revoke the lands in the FCT; why is giving them more time? I thought he would just revoke them at once.
“In the Abuja development plan, there’s no grazing area in the FCT or AMAC area council. Let him handle the issues of insecurity in Abuja. We’re not and will never be his problem.”
