The Benue State legislature passed the Anti-Open Grazing Law in 2017 to stem the tide of conflicts between herders and farmers. In this interview, Governor Samuel Ortom explains the effects the Law has had on peace and security, among other national issues. Legal Editor John Austin Unachukwu met him.
In 2017, the Benue State House of Assembly passed the Anti-Open Grazing Bil which you signed into law. That law has operated for almost a year now. Looking back, how would you appraise the law with reference to achieving the intentions of the lawmakers, the purpose of that law?
I must thank and appreciate the Almighty God for the courage, strength and foresight to enact this law. For me, I still want to reiterate that it remains the best option for the ‘so called’ farmers-herders crisis in Nigeria.
Why do you mean by ‘so called’ farmers-herders crises?
I term it ‘so called’ because that is not the intention. The intention of the real perpetrators who are pay masters of these herders is not about rearing cattle in Benue State. Let me not talk about other parts of Nigeria, I will talk about Benue State which is my own domain. So, if you look at what is going on, you will appreciate that if it was about rearing cattle in Benue State, every other person would have accepted the law as enacted because it was researched thoroughly and we went into consultation with all stakeholders before passing it into law. All stakeholders including the herdsmen were duly consulted before the enactment of the law and, so, there is no basis for anyone to come out today and say that they are going to resist this law.
Why did you opt for ranching instead of other modes of animal husbandry?
Globally, ranching remains the best practice and it is the modern way of animal husbandry as far as we are concerned, and if you look at the whole scenario, judging from the fact that the total number of cattle that are creating problems here in Nigeria are statistically less than 19 million. There are other countries in this world like Brazil, India, Argentina, America and other parts of the world that have over 100 million, 200 million, 300 million herds of cattle in their countries and because they have adopted this approach of ranching, they have not had any crisis and their cattle are far more than what we have here in Nigeria. So, people who have a different intention of invading and taking over the land are the real perpetrators of this.
For us, the foresight to organize and enact this law following due process was the best thing that has ever been done. It wasn’t my making, it is the people’s law. I tell you that the Benue Peoples House was under siege seven good times, the House of Assembly more than 10 times.
The people came themselves both old women, young people who were sent out of school as a result of the invasion came here and said that government must do something, that we must provide something that will bring a lasting solution to this problem because it has dealt with us for years, these killings every time continues. So, it is the people’s making but people who try to make some political gains insinuate that they are not in support of this law.
I have gone round and if you like you can go round and ask those in the IDP camps and any other person on the street of this town whether I am imposing this law on them or they are the people who have mandated me as Governor to ensure that there is security for lives and properties.
Are there areas of the law that you think should be modified to achieve the purpose for which it was enacted or is it a perfect law?
No law is perfect and no law is sacrosanct but there are procedures. If people feel that, well let’s make adjustments; we have seen the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and going through due process the law may be amended. But it is not for somebody rise up one day and say, no, I don’t want this portion of the law so I will remove it. Even I as Governor, I have no powers to do that. So for me, I have seen this law, though not a perfect law, it’s not sacrosanct and if it is due or necessary to be amended, if there is need and the people accept it, because we have to still go through the same process of getting stakeholders to be involved in doing it.
So, as far as I’m concerned, the law has achieved its purpose because as I talk to you, despite the resistance from our enemies, you see that we are implementing the law. I tell you on record, we have arrested over 400 herdsmen, not just Fulanis, even other natives including Tiv people and they are prosecuted at various stages. Some have been convicted, some have to pay fines depending on the gravity of the offence that they committed.
Some cattle were arrested and quarantined and the people came and paid fine as stipulated by the law. But we have arrested over 400 people; some are still being prosecuted, they are in Makurdi Prison as I talk to you. Some were convicted without option of fine, some who paid those options have been freed. So, we are law-abiding people and we do the right thing. So as far as we are concerned, this law has succeeded in achieving this purpose.
Recently, you changed your political party and moved from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). What has been your experience in the PDP since you returned?
Thank you very much. You can see that I’m already enjoying my decision to defect to PDP; I’m well received. There in APC, I had no hold of my own. Though I was Governor, I had no control over the leadership of the APC in the state, so, I could not be held responsible and that was why things were going very wrong because I had no control. Even the things I thought that were right to be done, I was pressed upon not to do them. You see, when you have a leadership that doesn’t think about the people but thinks about himself, a leadership that is always drunk, then I’m not part of that and everybody knows the circumstances that led to my defection from PDP to APC and then winning the election.
So, it was a compelling decision against my wish, but I had to do it. But the truth is that there was no freedom for me in the APC. Today, I have that freedom. If you know and you are in this country, one of the notorious problems I had was the issue of payment of salaries. Since I defected to PDP, I tell you that since January I have been able to pay salaries up to date. Even this December, I directed that salaries should be paid on December 19.
For so many years, that had not happened in Benue State. That arrangement was done because Benue State’s economy is driven by the Civil Service and when salaries are not paid it becomes the major problem. So, today as I talk to you, we do not have problems with payment of salaries.
The only challenge we have is the arrears that accumulated over the years because of the pressure I had from the APC leadership who never allowed me to operate. And today, I take responsibility for everything that happens in PDP because I am the leader.
What style of leadership do you provide now in the PDP?
My leadership is servant leadership. I work with the people, I listen to them, we think together. That was why even though I defected from APC to PDP, within a short time I was embraced by the people. They came and pronounced me leader of the party. Though I met about 13 governorship aspirants in the PDP, I was overwhelmingly received. Initially, we had issues that procedures were not followed but I sat with them and my brothers accepted me and we told ourselves that power belongs to God and so let there be a free and fair contest and we did that.
I tell you that out of 2,700 delegates, the people of Benue State and the PDP delegates gave me 2,200 votes. So, you can see the overwhelming acceptance. And in the course of the race for the primaries, some of our brothers decided that since you are a serving governor, let us allow you to continue, and they backed out of the contest even though they secured all the necessary papers and were eligible to contest but they left it.
So, the other one that contested told me that ‘My brother, let us just go into it, it’s a race and once you win, we are going to support you.’ And that was what they did. The day I was pronounced winner, they all came and embraced me and since then we have been working together and you can see that things are moving on smoothly. Okay, you talked about the APC; they could not even do primaries.
They could not conduct primaries and it took them up till the last day of submitting a running mate that they had to do it. Today, some of those people that aspired to be running mates and some of the aspirants are talking to me and are also prepared to join forces with me because there is no democracy in APC and that is what I have been resisting.
How then do we grow democracy in this country?
For us to allow democracy to grow in this country, we must allow free and fair primaries. Democracy will start from internal democracy, not general election. When you rig people out, when you don’t imbibe the habit of doing internal democracy in your own party, the propensity to also attempt to rig is very high. So, this is the challenge and that is why today they are not campaigning, all they are saying is ‘we’ll use federal might’. Where is the Federal might? We are waiting for them to see. Here, we believe in the rule of law and we are going to insist that the right thing be done.
For us, we are not any other state. Nobody can intimidate us here with security. Security men belong to us. The Army belongs to all of us, the Police, the State Secret Service, they are all public institutions and we insist that they do the right thing. Where they cannot do it, we go to court.
And we are ready to face anyone. Let us go out and do free and fair election. If at the end we lose out, we say God we thank you because You are the maker of all things. John 3:27 says: “A man can receive nothing, except it is given to him from above.” But that is when there is justice, truthfulness, equity. Once you have that, we can know that we have been defeated.
But for us, we are not going to betray the confidence that our people have given to us to represent them, to defend and to protect them including protecting the democracy that we have. So, that is where we are.
You were recently quoted as saying that you would report one of your kinsmen to Tiv Traditional Council. When will you do that?
That I have done.
And what is the outcome?
The outcome is that, the entire Tiv nation came out and condemned what he did. He is not just one of my kinsmen, he’s the Senator representing Zone B. Sen. George Akume who was a two-time Governor and three-time Senator and who was also accused of not having a single meeting when he was inaugurated as Chairman of Army Committee in the Senate.
Here in this zone, there is virtually no presence of the Federal Government here which is his responsibility. He would have been fighting towards doing that. I reported him because I wanted him to justify that, but the Tiv Traditional Council warned everybody. That is the Supreme Council of the Tiv nation.
And it is more disgusting because the Senator represents seven local governments in Benue State called Zone B. The seven local governments were attacked and more than 700,000 became IDPs and up till now the challenge of getting these IDPs back to their homes is a big problem, but we appreciate the Federal Government and the ‘Operation Whirl Stroke’ that came in and have really given us confidence.
So have all the militia gone now?
Today, there is no single militia camp around Benue State but we still have issues. They come in and go out from neighbouring states to attack us. That is the challenge we have and these people have done well.
I think that for that kind of a person who knows very well that Benue State has been under siege and attacks were happening here there, should also be part of us trying to find solutions but turning it for political reason and making it look as if nothing has happened, I think there is need for me as Governor of Benue State, since he is my subject, I will take steps to cure him.
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