Don’t bring your grazing routes to Bayelsa, Governor Diri tells Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari’s resolve to resurrect open grazing routes in Nigeria has hit a roadblock in Bayelsa state.

Buhari, in an interview with Arise TV, said he had instructed attorney-general Abubakar Makami to reclaim open grazing routes across the country. This is despite the ban on open grazing in the country’s south.

The president’s plan may not work in Bayelsa where Governor Douye Diri has said that his people are predominantly fish farmers.

“For us, there are no cattle grazing routes in Bayelsa state,” Diri said in state capital Yenogoa on Saturday.

“Our people are traditionally and occupationally fishermen. The idea of cattle grazing routes in Bayelsa is very strange to us in this part of the country.

“There may be cattle grazing routes in the north but what is applicable in the north may not be applicable to us in the south.

“I don’t want to believe we are running a unitary system of government,” the governor said.