Community Asset and Anti Open Grazing Law

Community Asset and Anti-Open Grazing Law

Repeated clashes between herdsmen and farmers within the nation have continuously call for legislative intervention as local farmers and citizenry could no longer absorb the uproar ensued from open grazing activities

Fulani militants have being link to be the fourth most deadliest militant groups in the world with a record killing of 1,229 people in 2014 alone, by Global Terrorism Index, 2015 report.
Furthermore, a recent research by SBM Intelligence said the death toll from pastoral conflicts had been rising from 2015 and stood at nearly 5,000, “rivalling the killings by Boko Haram insurgents per year.”

The move by the government of Ekiti State in August 2016, passing a bill, criminalising open grazing to law, set the precedent for other states to wake up to their sole responsibility of safeguarding life and properties irrespective of the social debates

Ekiti people was quick to adopt and enjoy the benefit of food sovereignty in the Federation. The leadership of the state was proactive enough to take the bull by the horn even without any known traces of herdsmen clashes in their territory as against repeated herdsmen crisis in some part of the country

Anti open grazing law is an integral part of food sovereignty. It entails the right of the people, communities, federating states and countries to define their own policies, regarding their seeds, agriculture, labour, food and land. These policies must be appropriate to their unique ecological, social, economic and cultural content.

While a focus on boundaries restriction highlights the interconnections between security, community development, economic development, and culture, it also helps frame the importance of community asset control in the local agricultural system.
Food sovereignty is intricately connected to control of native assets, and increased control of agricultural assets which is an important strategy for increasing control of rural development. Native communities own many assets that are related to agriculture, the most important asset being land.
Family farmers own thousand acres of lands in Nigeria, deep seated in their various villages, making them collectively the single largest private owner of agricultural land.
Agricultural land is a veritable community assets that is as old as man. It is so sacred that it's premium among other rural assets by indigenes. It is common to note that, indigenes are sometime filtered from settlers through the right owner of rural land not minding title deed

Farmers and rural dwellers in recent time have being victim to fallout of upheavels from herdsmen who are always armed with injurious weapons while unleashing their displeasure on rustlers and farmers even at the slightest provocation or disputes.

This has led to the anti-open grazing law recently passed by the Benue State government which took effect on November 1, 2017. Hence, leading to the mass movement of herdsmen and their cattle out of the state.

More states in Nigeria are looking in the footstep of Ekiti government to enacting the anti open grazing laws,  after months of unending and increasing herdsmen and local farmers clashes.
States like Ogun, Ondo, Abia, Ebonyi, Imo  and other non-northern regions are moving to enact similar laws to curb herdsmen insurgency

Food sovereignty is taking the center stage to ensuring restriction to community asset is push before the various state legislatives arm to curb the menace of herdsmen and rural farmers before its become a national crisis