Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state says the manner with which the Muhammadu Buhari-led regime was handling the issue of insecurity in the country, he’s pushed to agree with the president’s critics that Mr Buhari has a hidden agenda.
“Mr President is pushing me to think that what they say about him, that he has a hidden agenda in this country is true. Because it is very clear that he wants to fulanise, but he is not the first Fulani president.
“Shagari was a Fulani President, Yar’ Adua was a Fulani President and they were the best in history. But President Buhari is the worst President when it comes to issues of security and keeping his promises,” Mr Ortom said.
Mr Ortom said this on Tuesday in an interview with Channels TV Chamberlain Usoh on the station’s popular Sunrise Daily programme.
Mr Ortom said Mr Buhari was the worst president in Nigeria’s history, and that the regime had failed in fulfilling its 2015 campaign promises, especially on the issues of security.
“Go back to 2015, what did he say, human rights issues, he talked about press freedom, about the economy, corruption, security, tell me one that Mr President has achieved.
“He has achieved some level of development in other sectors but prominent things that are concerns to Nigerians and we are all worried about… tell me when Mr President has come out to address them. Is it corruption? We are worse in the history of this country.”
Reacting to recent approval of open grazing policy across 25 states in the country, Mr Ortom said that the Land Use Act gives governors of each state the power to preside over the land within their states as it best suits the interests of the state.
“If Mr President respects the law, the Land Use Act gives governors the power to preside over land administration on behalf of the people that they govern,” he said.
“So it is amazing and I am surprised to hear this coming from Mr President as if he doesn’t have an attorney general, or lawyers around him to advise him. I think Mr President was misquoted or he did it out of error. He should come out to apologise to Nigerians.
“There is no basis whatsoever for this to be going on when we know we have the Constitution and the laws that are available in Benue,” Mr Ortom said.
Speaking further, the governor said that it is disappointing that the grazing reserves policy was adopted despite an agreement by the state governments and stakeholders that ranching will resolve the herders and farmers issue in Nigeria.
“The point is very simple when we have a National Economic Council, this is Mr President’s Council, inaugurated by him and Chaired by the Vice President of the federal republic of Nigeria.
“The 36 states governors and some key ministers including the minister of the FCT, are members of this Council, we saw this coming and resolved that how can we solve this problem?
“The entire council came out with a resolution that we established a committee that would go round and come up with recommendations that will help curb this problem that we have in Nigeria today.
“The committee did its work and came up with recommendations on the problems we have today and it was resolved at the end of the day after this committee visited several states and came back that ranching should be adopted.
“Whereas a state that has enough land to do open grazing should do it. If they want cattle RUGA, they should do it. If they want a cattle colony, they should do it. Whatever they want, they should do it; that states should be respected based on their peculiarities. This is what we came out with,” Mr Ortom said.