“But there is one issue on which the two of us are agreed, and that is how to curtail the excesses of herdsmen.” So claimed Tunji Adegboyega in his piece: “Fayose right for once,” of September 16, 2016, of The Nation.
Truth is truth; it will come out, no matter how hard we try to suppress it. Hence, after all the merry-go-round and the whipping up of unnecessary sentiments and needless emotions against Governor Ayodele  Fayose of Ekiti State, Adegboyega still end up at the bus stop called TRUTH.
Thank God that Adegboyega admitted that the herdsmen have excesses: That they have ridden rough-shod all over the country killing and maiming innocent citizens; destroying farmlands and other businesses; and setting whole villages on fire in many instances is not contestable.
Thanks, also, for admitting that in signing into law the “Prohibition of Cattle and other Ruminants Grazing in Ekiti Bill, 2016”, the governor acted “proactively” but I want to assure you that there was no other “propelling force” or motive behind the law other than the safety, security, well-being, and peace of Ekiti.
Thanks for understanding the fact that not only herdsmen have the right to craze their cattle or engage in economic activities or have constitutionally-enshrined right to freedom of movement: Ekiti farmers and other citizens equally have rights which must be protected. Farmers have the right to farm and to have their lives and property protected by law.
Ekiti is made up predominantly of farmers. If we did not take steps to safeguard them and their economic activities, not only will they become pauperised in no time, hunger will wallop the entire state once farmers are driven away from their land and farming activities are halted.
Thanks for knowing that there is hardly any law made that will not have “antagonists.” So, the Ekiti grazing bill is not an exception. Thanks for understanding that night movement by herdsmen has, all over the country, provided a cover for attacks on innocent citizens at their most vulnerable hours, which is in the dead of the night when they would all be sleeping.
Thanks also for refreshing our memory with evidences of the havoc and willful destruction of lives and property that night movement by herdsmen have visited on people. Thanks for understanding that the herdsmen want nothing short of the preservation of the status-quo ante, that is, unbridled freedom to do as they like, which we are not able to tolerate any more in Ekiti.
Thanks for canvassing what others have been saying and which is the intention of our grazing bill, to wit, that cattle-rearing is private business and should be treated as such; and that ranches should be established by the owners of this business, just like other private businesses establish nurseries for their seedlings; ponds for their fishes; pens for their birds, etc.
Our final thanks for your conclusion that the herdsmen should imbibe technology and key into modern-day means of transportation, such as rail transportation, rather than “continue business in a crude and primitive manner in a rapidly-changing world” But it is not any anti-Buhari stance or opposition to the APC government that fired Fayose to act promptly on the herdsmen’s menace.
Like you said everyone who knows you knows that you are not a Fayose man, so also everyone who knows the governor knows that he is always upbeat about what he believes in; they also know that he is passionate about Ekiti. He is an action governor who connects well and resonates with the people. Visit Ekiti and witness this for yourself.
You made a fallacious statement when you said: “Given that Ekiti State has not suffered ANY SERIOUS CALAMITY (my emphasis) from herdsmen”, you were “tempted to believe that the bill is Fayose’s way of continuing the battle between him and President Buhari by other means”.
Be careful of temptation: Temptation, when you fall for it, leads to perdition and damnation! And if I may ask, what has Buhari got to do with the terrorist activities of the herdsmen all over the country? Buhari’s government is fighting Boko Haram terrorists, classified by the civilised world as the third most violent terrorist group in the world. How on earth can we again link the head of that government with the herdsmen, who have also been classified as the fourth most violent terrorist group in the world?
Except you have information that we do not have, our own information stops only at the facts that Buhari is (was?) a cattle owner and patron of the cattle owners association; that he is Muslim and Fulani like most of the herdsmen; and that his government has, at the very best, been lukewarm in its response to the atrocities of the herdsmen despite the huge outcry from all and sundry. Pray, must we wait for Ekiti to suffer SERIOUS CALAMITY before we act? We say an emphatic NO. Prevention, they say, is better than cure.
The question, in fact, is not whether what you called “festering problem” was still far away when we acted; it actually had berthed on our shores. In the night of Friday, May 20, 2016, the herdsmen unleashed an unprovoked attack on Oke-Ako in Ikole local government area of the state, leaving death, sorrow, destruction, anguish, and tales of woes on their trail.
This was the immediate provocation for the Ekiti anti-grazing law. Before this time, there had been efforts to attack the same locality by the herdsmen but which was foiled by the vigilance of the community people themselves.  Therefore, it is wicked and malicious lie that the anti-grazing law was meant to spite President Buhari.
Fayose is the constitutionally-recognised Chief Security Officer of Ekiti State. In that wise, he has the bounden duty to ensure security of life and property as well as promote the well-being of the entire citizenry of Ekiti. Kindly note that the anti-grazing law is not targeted at any one or group. In fact, it is for the security and protection of all.
To this end, all interest groups made contributions to the bill. Everything, including Fayose’s signing into law of the grazing bill, which you cynically referred to, was done not in secret but in Fayose’s characteristic openness. And you were economical with the truth when you said Fayose was “right for once”.
Idowu Adelusi, Chief Press Secretary to Ekiti State Governor.

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