For the first time in many years, the 17 Southern Governors Forum (SGF) held an emergency meeting in Asaba, Delta state on May 11, 2021, as a result of rising insecurity in the region. After the meeting, the governors demanded that the 2023 presidency should be zoned to the south while agreeing to outrightly ban open grazing in the entire southern states alongside other items in the communique....CONTINUE READING
However, the banning of open grazing which seems to be one of the most contentious issues drew a lot of criticisms from some political leaders from the north who insisted that the southern governors were trying to infringe on cattle herders’ constitutional rights to freedom of movement. The proposed ban on open grazing in the south heated the polity throwing up Nigerian fault lines as most Nigerians on either side of the divides vituperate each other on social media.
However, on July 5, the Southern Governors reconvened in Lagos with the conspicuous absence of some governors, the forum reiterated their initial stand on their first meeting held in May at Asaba with the issuing of October 1 as the deadline for all member states to pass the anti-open grazing law in their respective states.
The SGF went further to hold its third and final meeting for the year in September at Enugu state which was poorly attended as the host governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi was the only governor from the southeast who was physically present while some of his counterparts just deemed it fit to send representatives.
As it stands now, some of the southern governors have already backed out on the issue of banning open grazing in their states while some of the ambitious ones are secretly angling for the 2023 presidential ticket.