By Lukman Olabiyi
Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Kunle Adegoke, has told Senator Ali Ndume and other northerners who feel aggrieved by the decision of the southern governors to ban open grazing, to listen to the voices of reason from Kano State governor Abdullahi Ganduje and former Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
Adegoke, a former gubernatorial aspirant in Osun State, said reasonable people from the North do not indulge in insensitive banalities.
He commended the southern governors for taking a right step in right direction in that attempt to restore peace in their region.
On the constitutionality of the ban on open grazing, Adegoke also knocked those who said the southern governors’ pronouncement was illegal.
His words: “It is unfortunate that the makers of such statement did not consult knowledgeable people before exhibiting such ignorance. The ban on open grazing is just a regulation of a trading activity in line with what the Constitution permits. No trade or business activity is allowed under the Constitution to be carried in a manner destructive of the means of sustenance of others.
“Where the freedom of the herdsmen ends, is where the rights of others begin. It is disappointing and disheartening that in the 21st Century, some supposedly educated people still believe that mundane and atavistic manner of rearing animals by open grazing should be elevated beyond human existence.”
“At the age when other nations are striving to attain the best scientific achievement possible, some people are craving for land grabbing in the name of right to graze. Honestly, it is a shame.”