The Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s insistence on open grazing is unconstitutional and against the spirit and letters of the 1999 constitution.
Clark maintained that the constitution has vested the ownership of land in states and therefore the Federal Government has no power over any land in the country except in the Federal capital Territory.
The elderstatesman also reminded the president that he is the president of the entire country and not a section of the country.
Clark, who addressed reporters in Abuja on Monday, said ““Mr. President should regard himself as President of one Nigeria, and not as President of the Fulanis or the Northerners. We shall resist, at all cost, any attempt to subjugate us as citizens of one Nigeria.
“I also use this opportunity to seriously advise the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, over his irresponsible and unprofessional language, which is misleading and misdirecting Mr. President. Because the rhetorical question Mr. President asked during his interview with Arise Television, whether Nigerians want him (Mr. President) to contradict the Attorney General of the Federation, was based on his understanding of the AG’s advice to him.
“The AG’s position is provided for in the Constitution, and he is expected to be independent of parochial and unconstitutional Government decisions. He behaves as if his position is that of a Minister of Justice alone. This was the reason why at the 2014 National Conference it was recommended that the post of the Attorney General recognised by the Constitution should be separated from that of the Minister of Justice who owes his allegiance to the Government in power that appointed him.
“Perhaps Mr. President is not aware, or he has not been advised by the AG that the Land Use Act which vested ownership of land on the State Governor is entrenched in the Constitution of the country. Therefore, any Gazette or Law passed by any State or National Assembly is and will be null and void because the 1999 Constitution supersedes all such laws or gazette notices.
“The President has no power or authority to impose open grazing on State Governments. Such illegal action which is a breach of the 1999 Constitution, will not be accepted and will be legally resisted at all costs.
“Therefore, any law banning open grazing by State Governments is not only legal and binding, but is unchallengeable and binding on any person or group of persons, including the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. There is no federal system where the federating units are not controlled by the Governors, who is the chief security officer of his federating unit. What we are practicing today is not a federation. Rather, what we are practicing is a unitary form of government which makes our President the most powerful President of any Federal system. And that is why the people want a new Constitution.
He further stressed, “But for him to say that there are grazing roots in Nigeria and no one has the right to stop those people threatening that they would destroy those things built on the root and allow the grazing root. In what country. This country does not belong to Mr. president or anybody alone, it belongs to all of us with equal rights.
“There is a land use decree of 1978, which is now entrenched in the 1999 constitution of Nigeria, therefore, which vested all kands on state government; the Federal Government has no land except those in FCT.
“For Mr. President to threaten that they must allow for open grazing is unacceptable. We all belong to this country and we have a duty to defend this country.
“Finally, may I, once again, appeal to Mr. President, Muhammadu Buhari to call for a National Dialogue over insecurity and general violence, with Nigerians of various ethnic nationalities. The various calls by groups for secession and breakup of the country is not healthy. He needs to have a peaceful government until he leaves office in 2023.
“We must build up a united Nigeria where all citizens are equal, and have equal opportunity to aspire to any position in their God-given land without being subjugated or reduced to become subjects without any rights in their own country.
“We must, therefore, I repeat, restructure and return to a Federal system of Government as it was in 1963, before the military took over.
“Enough is Enough!”
