Founder and General Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has called for an end to open grazing and urged the Nigerian government to separate agricultural pastoralism from terrorist issues.
Bakare who is an ally to Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday featured on an ARISE News programme, The Morning Show and said he would bring the issue of the “obsolete” practice of open grazing to the President when the opportunity avails itself.
His comment comes amid calls for herders to leave certain regions of the country over concerns related to insecurity.
Bakare however called on citizens to be careful not to “tear the country apart”.
Bakare said open grazing needs to end as nations of the earth have gone beyond the practice, adding that it will also solve the myriad of issues associated with open grazing.
“Let’s be careful not to tear this county apart. There are four issues in this matter that I have considered and when I have the opportunity, I will bring to the attention of the President. One of the issues is open grazing, I think it’s obsolete and it needs to end because the nations of the earth have gone beyond this.
“I was in Glasgow, (in Scotland); I was in Israel, there are so many things we can do about agricultural pastoralism that will stop all the trouble in our land. We’ve lived together with Fulanis for years.
“And, we must separate pastoralism from the second thing — the terrorist issues in the forest, government must evict them.”
