Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, says the President Buhari regime’s insistence on carving out grazing routes across 25 states despite condemnations is a show of tyranny.

“The dictatorial tendency of the President can be seen in his insistence to go ahead with re-opening grazing routes and establishment of ranches in the country when the preponderance of opinions across the country is to do away with open grazing,” Afenifere said in a statement by its spokesperson, Jare Ajayi.

Last week, Mr Buhari “approved recommendations of a committee to review ‘with dispatch,’ 368 grazing sites, across 25 states in the country, ‘to determine the levels of encroachment.’”

The president’s directive was issued despite the Afenifere; Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze; and southern governors’ opposition to open grazing.

In May 17, southern governors who converged in Asaba, the capital of Delta State, announced a ban on open grazing and nomadic pastoralism across the region.

“We vividly recall that on February 9, 2021, the 19 states’ governors in the North at their meeting resolved that open grazing could no longer be sustained. They resolved to encourage herders in their areas to go into the modern way of rearing cows, which is ranching,” Afenifere said, recounting the southern governors’ decision.

The group also maintained that Buhari’s tyrannical traits are evident in the signing of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), and his clampdown on separatist leaders, “while it is soft on bandits, kidnappers, and herders who are imperiling the lives of farmers.”

The association added that only a tyrannical government “behaves in that manner.”

Lamenting the Buhari regime’s nonchalance in accepting diverse opinions, the group lamented that several campaign promises made in 2015 are yet to be fulfilled.

On the issue of insecurity across the country, Afenifere said, “At no time in the history of Nigeria had life been so cheap and living was so precarious as they were present.

“Unfortunately, those who should act are expressing their helplessness as exemplified by the call of Katsina state Governor Bello Masari on the people of the state to find the means of securing themselves against bandits who have literally taken control in many parts of the state.

“For sure, Masari was not the first official to make such a call. But this was very significant not only because he belongs to the same political party as the president but also because he is the governor of the President’s home state,” it noted.

Mr Masari, last week, charged citizens to purchase guns to defend themselves against bandits. The governor had made this statement when he paid a condolence visit to families of 10 persons killed by a vehicle belonging to the Nigerian Customs Service.

“We must all rise up to counter the insecurity challenge, we must not sit and watch some people buying guns attacking our houses, we too should buy the guns and protect ourselves,” Mr Masari had said.

Afenifere believes that the current administration, rather than focus on challenges facing the country, prefers to “go for the less impactful things such as regulating the media, going after those who are peacefully expressing displeasure over what is going on in the country and concerning itself with where and how cows are to be grazed in the country.”

The statement further quoted Ayo Adebanjo, a factional leader of the group as saying that several actions by Mr Buhari can be likened to the story of Roman Emperor Nero “who was busy on the fiddle when his empire was burning.”