The pan-Yoruba socio-political organization called Afenifere has stated that it would not be deceived with the President Buhari’s plan to establish farm estates in the country.
The group in its reaction to the directive by the president on the establishment of farm estates in the 108 senatorial districts in Nigeria said the move looks suspicious.
Afenifere said that the plan looks like a deceptive move to acquire land for the herdsmen in other parts of the country.
Sometimes ago, President Buhari had instructed the National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) to look for ways to set up farm estates in each of the 108 senatorial districts in the country.
But Afenifere in a statement on Wednesday through its Secretary-General, Mr Sola Ebiseni, queried the directive, perceiving that it looks suspicious.
The statement reads: “Nigerians are in no way deceived that the urgency purportedly attached to the programme by President Buhari is of equal proportional zeal with the creation of settled villages for Fulani herdsmen, from everywhere and nowhere, on the ancestral lands of other nationalities, which in the fullness of time will become colonies of tyranny as they are in Southern Kaduna, on the Plateau and many other parts of the Middle Belt.
“The cry across the land is that our President should rise to his primary responsibility of ensuring security of life and property, especially for the farmers, that they may feed the nation. If we may ask, will the Federal Government also build military barracks stronger than the Nigerian Defence Academy in those farm estates?
“President Buhari needs also be reminded that none of his predecessors, who showed greater interests in agriculture, was this covetous of land and seeking to work over and above the federating states; not even the military government of Obasanjo in its Operation Feed the Nation, nor Shehu Shagari’s Green Revolution.
“Rather than seeking land by force, which it has no powers over by the constitution and the Land Use Act, and imposing the type of agricultural practices on the states, let the Federal Government provide resources and incentives to the states in their areas of comparative advantage. Thus, in their choice of agricultural endeavours, the Niger Delta states may choose aquaculture, while the North-West sticks to animal husbandry. The President has not denied that his government has disbursed more than N6bn to his Katsina home state for ranching without breathing over them for specific land.
“Apart from the Federal Government having no powers over land, it cannot also compel the states to acquire the ancestral land of other people for the personal use of others. Constitutionally though, agriculture is under the concurrent legislative list; the powers of the Federal Government thereon under item ‘H’ of the Constitution, paragraphs 17-20, are limited and not extended to any activities giving it powers over land in view of the Land Use Act, which has equal constitutional status.”
“For the states in the South-West, including Edo and Delta, this government has nothing to teach us in farm estates. Let Buhari chase the killer terrorists from our land that the people may prosper. We are sceptical of these Greek gifts.”
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