Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State, has said the decision by his Southern colleagues to ban open grazing is wrong and won't work because of yet to be addressed underlying issues he said are responsible for the many challenges facing the country.
Zulum who disclose this when featured on a Channels TV programme on Wednesday, said the ban won't solve the country's problems because it won't end poverty, food crisis and other issues he identified as being responsible for the current state of the nation.
He said, “We have to address the socio-political and economic dimensions of this crisis which is very important because there is increasing poverty in the sub-region; that is something that will trigger insurgency.”
“There is increasing food insecurity in the sub-region because food insecurity is the worst form of insecurity and that is why the Borno State Government has been advocating for farming in the last two years. Farmers should be allowed to go to their farm lands.
“The issue of the socio-political and economic dimensions of this crisis is very important; addressing farmers-herders is also very important, to ensure that the enabling environment has been created to the herders is very important. This issue of stopping open grazing and others will not work unless we sit down and address all these issues squarely.”