Open Grazing Routes: Malami, Others Giving Buhari Wrong Legal Advice – Senate

The Spokesperson of the Nigerian Senate, Ajibola Basiru, has rejected President Muhammadu Buhari’s call for the reintroduction of grazing routes in Nigeria.

Naija News recalls that 17 southern governors had after a meeting in Delta State imposed a ban on open grazing in the region.

But President Muhammadu Buhari had directed states to revive cattle grazing routes across the country.

The president stated this during an interview with Arise Television which was aired last Thursday.

He disclosed that he has asked Nigeria’s Attorney General, Abubakar Malami to begin the process of recovering land from persons who have converted cattle grazing routes for their personal use.

Buhari said the grazing routes were designated in the 1st Republic when “Nigerians use to obey laws” but those routes had been converted.

“What I did was ask him to go and dig the gazette of the 1st Republic when people were obeying laws,” he said.

But speaking with The PUNCH, Basiru expressed worry over the legal advice given to the president by Abubakar Malami.

According to the senate mouthpiece, the gazette Buhari was referring to was a product of a decree promulgated in northern Nigeria in the 1960s.

He stated that that the Land Use Act recognized 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,” Basiru 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.”

He stated that the decree for northern Nigeria cannot be a federal law, adding that Buhari lacks the power to implement such 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.”