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Grazing-Route Law: Buhari Not Getting Right Legal Advice – Senate Spokesman

Published

3 years ago

June 14, 2021

Eric

Spokesman of the Senate, Ajibola Basiru, says there is no grazing-route law in Nigeria.

Basiru said this following the statement of the president on the farmer-herder crisis.

The president while fielding questions in an interview with Arise Television on Thursday, said: “What I did was ask him (AGF) to go and dig the gazette of the first republic when people were obeying laws.

“There were cattle routes and grazing areas. Cattle routes were for when they (herders) are moving up country, north to south or east to west, they had to go through there.”

But speaking with The PUNCH, Basiru said the gazette that Buhari was referring to was a product of a decree promulgated in northern Nigeria in the 1960s, adding that the Land Use Act recognised by the constitution has rendered it ineffective.

“Nigerians should be concerned over whether the Nigerian president is actually getting the correct legal advice from his attorney-general and the legal team,” the senator said.

“As far as I am concerned, as a legal practitioner, there is nothing like grazing routes or grazing reserve law, in the laws of the federation of Nigeria. There is nothing like that.

“There is no federal legislation that the president can implement over such matter. The executive powers of the president merely rely on the powers of the national assembly to make laws, when you look at Section 5 of the constitution.

“Any area where the national assembly cannot make laws, and there is no express grants of powers to the president under the constitution, a purported exercise of power by the president in that regard, will be null and void because it is inconsistent with the constitution by section 1(3) of the 1999 constitution.

“I am aware that there is a northern Nigerian law on reserve and grazing routes which was promulgated by a 1964 decree by the premier of the defunct northern Nigeria region.”

The legislator said there is no how a decree for northern Nigeria will be implemented as a federal law.

“It is not a federal law unless the legal adviser to Mr President is equating a northern Nigeria law, which is not applicable in the west, mid-west, and eastern region or in anywhere in the southern part of Nigeria, to be a federal or a Nigerian law,” he said.

“The president does not have the power to implement that law because it is not a federal law. He can only implement federal legislation made by the national assembly or deemed to have been made by the national assembly.

“The grazing routes law is not a national assembly law, so there is nothing for the president to implement. It is regrettable that the president has not been properly advised by his attorney-general and the legal team.”

TheCable

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We’ve Become Embarrassment to the World, TY Danjuma Laments

Published

26 mins ago

April 20, 2024

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

A former Minister of Defence, and Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), has lamented that Nigeria is a war front, and has become an embarrassment to the world, while appealing to all and sundry to be their brother’s keeper and cease killing one another, in order to attract foreign investors from across the world.

Danjuma, who spoke Friday at the opening ceremony of the Nwonyo International Fishing and Cultural Festival in Ibi Local Government Area of Taraba State, said Nigeria has devolved into a war zone where citizens are killing one another.

He said: “There is no sane foreign person that will come to our country to celebrate with us if we continue to kill each other and make our roads unsafe for people to move around.

“As we are today as Nigeria we are a disgrace to the whole world. The country is a war front where our people are against our own people.

“We must put our house in order because right now we are a laughing stock to the whole world.

“We must stop killing each other. We must make our roads safe. We must stop kidnappings.

“If we are expecting this festival to be truly international, we must have peace in our State and throughout the country.”

It would be recalled that the former Minister, in rare fit of outburst, while speaking at the maiden convocation of the Taraba State University, called out the military, accusing them of colluding with terrorists in an attempt to indulge in ethnic cleansing.

Born about 86 years ago, Danjuma was the Chief of Army Staff from July 1975 to October 1978. He was also Minister of Defence under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.

According to Wikipedia, Danjuma was born in Takum, Taraba State (formally Gongola), Nigeria, to Kuru Danjuma and Rufkatu Asibi. Takum was mainly a farming community when Danjuma was young, and yams, rice, cassava, and beniseed were largely cultivated by families and clans. His father was a hardworking peasant whose ancestors were all highly respected members of the community. Kuru Danjuma was a farmer who traded metal parts for farming implements and tools.

He started his education at St Bartholomew’s Primary School in Wusasa and moved on to the Benue Provincial Secondary School in Katsina-Ala where he was the captain of the school cricket 1st XI team; he received his Higher School Certificate in 1958. In 1959, Danjuma enrolled at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science, and Technology in Zaria (Ahmadu Bello University) to study History on a Northern Nigeria Scholarship.

However, by the end of 1960, Danjuma had left the university to enroll in the Nigerian Army.

Danjuma’s military sojourn will be incomplete without a recount of the role he played on the July 29, 1966, when he, alongside other officers of northern extraction, stage a retaliation coup, killing the Head of State, General Aguiyi Ironsi, and his host, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, in Ibadan, Oyo State.

The operation, code named July Rematch, also had Murtala Mohammed, Buka Suka Dimka, Muhammadu Buhari, Sani Abacha, Musa Usman, Ibrahim Taiwo, Ibrahim Bako, Ibrahim Babangida, and others as participants.

Though Danjuma had denied the roles he supposedly played in the coup and killings of the two ranking officers, reports detail as follows: “Danjuma picked up Nigeria’s first military Head of State General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi and first military Governor of the former Western Region Lt Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi (who was hosting Aguiyi-Ironsi at his residence in Ibadan) from the side of the road, as there were escaping an ambush orchestrated by Danjuma, Mohammed, Dimka, Buhari and others.

“Danjuma held them captive in the back of his car and drove off to an isolated area in Oyo state, where he ordered them to get out and shot them in cold blood.”

The events of that day turned out to be the harbinger of a 30 months catastrophic war, which claimed millions of lives, especially from the South East region of the country.

Today, Danjuma is in the habit of giving back to the society, using his TY Danjuma Foundation. The foundation has continued to take care of persons and institutions the distinguished soldier come across with.

“To show my gratitude to my country and to the Almighty God, I give,” he said

Headline

Breaking: Wike Plans to Attend Thursday’s PDP NEC Meeting

Published

3 days ago

April 17, 2024

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

The immediate past Governor of Rivers State, and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, may have concluded plans to attend the much advertised National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), billed to hold on Thursday, in Abuja.

Impeccable source, who is in the know, told The Boss that the minister, whose membership of the PDP is yet to be revoked even as he frolicks with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and serving in the President Bola Tinubu government as a minister.

The Source told The Boss that Wike’s impending presence at the NECeeting on Thursday is not unconnected with plans, already hatched with some governors, to weaken the opposition PDP.

“Yes, we have on good authority that FCT minister, Wike is planning to attend the NEC meeting tomorrow all in a bid to weaken the fabrics of the PDP, and pave the way for the continuation of the Tinubu administration come 2027, and by extension, relapse Nigeria to a full blown one party state.

“From every indication, Wike and his co-travellers, are bent on unleashing the same crisis ravaging the third force, Labour Party, and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso’s Nigerian National People’s Party (NNPP) on the PDP for the APC to remain the only political party in the country, and ensure that Tinubu has no challenger, come 2027,” the Source said.

It would be recalled that Wike has boasted over and again that there’s no opposition against Tinubu’s re-emergence in 2027, and that they have made sure of that. He has been compensated with the Ministerial job after he withdrew support for his party, and supported the APC and Tinubu to emerge as national government.

The Source further revealed that in the attempt to actualize the intended one party state, a lot of funding is ongoing to ensure that concerned stakeholders are ‘settled’ handsomely.

Wike, prior, during and after the 2023 general elections, has been floating in between the two major political parties; the APC and the PDP. While he claim to still be a member of the PDP, he is functioning as a minister in an APC government, mocking the inability of his party to discipline him.

Political stakeholders have concluded that the outcome of Thursday’s PDP NEC meeting will determine the path Nigeria’s political trajectory will take, and that it may portend the end of multi-party system and political democracy if Wike succeeds in his plan.

Headline

Bribery, Corruption: APC Suspends National Chairman, Ganduje

Published

5 days ago

April 15, 2024

Eric

The All Progressives Congress ward in Ganduje, Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area, has suspended the party’s National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje.

The party ward legal adviser, Halliru Gwanzo, announced the suspension while addressing newsmen in Kano State on Monday.

Gwanzo cited allegations of bribery against Ganduje levelled by the Kano State Government as the reason for the suspension.

“We decided to suspend Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje from the party due to the seriousness of the allegations against him,” Gwanzo said.

Meanwhile, efforts to contact the Chief Press Secretary to the APC National Chairman, Mr Edwin Olufo, failed as his mobile phone was unreachable.