By Jeffery Orji
It is about two months now that President Buhari was sworn in for second term via a very controversial election that most people believed is not free and fair rather referred as a stolen mandate by lots of people. In this Global enhancement age where other African countries are making advancement in different areas of human endeavours but Nigerians are being bogged with ‘Miyetti Allah, cattle routes and grazing reserves. Mr President, Your governance is nothing but barbaric. President MUHAMMADU BUHARI deserves a vote of no confidence. 
… FG should scrap or terminate the RUGA Settlement scheme not suspension
From all indication, it seems that the Federal Government of Nigeria under President Buhari desperately wants to institute open grazing field by all means to please herdsmen against the wish of Nigerians. Now it has been baptized with another acronymic four letter words ‘Ruga’. Definitely, there is something fishy about all these arrangements and that is the more reason Nigerians should keep opposing every suspicious strategy.
It is historical that there has not been much peace record along the part threaded by herdsmen in many parts of the country. Looking at the statement of Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, you begin to wonder if someone somewhere silently wants to implement such shallow scheme across the country. “My agreement with the officials that have given us information in the ministry of agriculture is that we would keep silent about it. One thing I will tell you is that the most outspoken critic of this policy, is based on politics and blackmail” 
From another perspective, it could be observed that the executive arm of government has taken it as a responsibility to implement the so called Ruga since it could not be achieved through the slow bill and law bureaucratic bottleneck process of the legislative arm of government. Information from the Special Assistant to the President of the Senate on Media and Publicity, Mohammed Isa, stated that the Ruga settlement project has not been raised or brought to the Senate. “The Senate President cannot speak on the issue except it is brought before the chamber. The matter has to be brought to the attention of the Senate either through a point of order or motion. Nobody has moved such a motion or come under a point of order to table the matter for discussion. So, the Senate President cannot comment on it as it were.”
Mr President is not even bothered that these financially empowered Herdsmen who are fulani’s from his community have become a very serious menace in recent times and even worse than Boko Haram group. Thousands of precious lives and properties have been lost even more than in a civil war scenario. The fundamental essence of law and order has lost its meaning in the country as these marauders have been elevated above the law and seemed untouchable and unstoppable. Lately, Fulani herdsmen have taken their nefarious activities to the next level as they now kidnap citizens for ransom across the country.
The Conception of RUGA SETTLEMENT by these administration has polarized Nigeria and Nigerians and made it more divided than it was before amalgamation. The brazen audacity of coming up with such a project (RUGA settlement) in Hausa word which simply means Cow settlement is the cruelest assault on inclusivity in a multi- ethnic country like Nigeria.
The in-house face attitude in coming up with this concept is a summation of all that is wrong with Nigeria being elevated under this administration.
And as it is, all Igbos, IPOB and other ethnic nationalities must arise and defend themselves by all means and protect their families from these Fulani herdsmen Terrorist sponsored by President Muhammadu Buhari. These administration has become a shame, rather than building a country blessed with natural resources in Abundance but he continues to chase shadow and use security personnel to intimidate, torture, detain and bring down individuals that speak out against these government. Nigerian security concerns is currently the Highest the country has ever encountered. Human lives matters no more. Nigeria security concerns is that of a failed state. Check current statistic of kidnaps and death during this tenure.
Furthermore, the quality of life has gone drastically down for millions of Nigerians in this last 4 years to the point that we are now the global headquarters of poverty. Yet, there has not been any co – ordinated effort to resuscitate the economy, making it appear that poverty has become the new weapon of social engineering in the country.
Nigerians can see that the IPOB Igbo leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has never been far away from the truth and that is why we must continue vigorously to seek referendum for a Sovereign state until it becomes a reality.
Recently, at the inauguration of the United Nations Solutions 17 SDG programme in Lagos Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka has warned the Federal Government that its handling of Ruga herdsmen settlements could spark an explosion in the country saying Ruga project of the Federal Government was not the best approach to resolving the herders-farmers’ clashes. Prof Soyinka’s observation came as the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere, the Middle Belt Forum and other groups raised total objection with the Presidency over the project.
Soyinka faulted the Federal Government over the project. “Ruga is going to be an explosion if not handled with care. But why do we not take our policies from good models? “This is not the way people and countries deal with issues of cattle. I travel everywhere. It has to be handled in a way that is logical, comprehensible to the environment. When a cow walks up to the window of my house in Abeokuta, a house which is located in a residential area, then there’s a problem. When a cow goes to Ijebu Ode and eats up their seedlings and so on and you expect people to be quiet? People have been killed in hundreds just because of the failure of leadership at a critical time.”
“And the cattle herders have been given a sense of impunity. They kill without any compunction, they drive away the farmers who have been contributing to the food solutions in the country, the cattle eat their crops and then you come up with Ruga. I think that there is going to be trouble in this country if this Ruga thing is not handled imaginatively and with humanity as priority. Any country where cattle take priority over human life is definitely at an elementary stage.”
In another controversy, Shehu said Ruga and the National Livestock Transformation Plan were only different in names. When asked if the two were different, he said, “It is just a matter of semantics. But Osinbajo while refuting a statement by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, said the Ruga programme was different from the National Livestock Transformation Plan. “Contrary to claims reported in sections of the media, Ruga settlements are not being supervised by the Office of the Vice President. Ruga is different from the National Livestock Transformation Plan approved by state governors under the auspices of the National Economic Council. On the National Livestock Transformation Plan, 13 states are already in the process of implementation of a plan to transform the livestock production system in Nigeria along market-oriented value chain while ensuring an atmosphere of peace and justice.
“The states are Adamawa, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, Taraba, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Kogi, Kwara, Ondo, and Edo. These states are at different stages in the process, but have indicated readiness to implement the plan. Truth is: this Federal Government will not impose on any state government regarding its land” he re-affirmed
Anyways it is only common sense that the federal government suspends the controversial Ruga settlement scheme, designed to settle the Fulani and their cattle on acquired land across states in the federation. The suspension was announced in Abuja after governors representing the six geopolitical zones of the country met with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. But most Nigerians are of the opinion that the SUSPENSION word is not strong enough. The word/s should be scraps, cancels, abrogates, annuls, invalidates, nullifies, terminates. Or writes off
On the implementation so far, Shehu responded, “the Federal Government has approved funding for this project. So, already, in some of these states, work is going on.” The question everyone is what happens next? Now that the federal government has suspended ruga owing to the mass rejection what happens to the approved fund and the work going in some states on this project?
