Letter To President Tinubu: Time To Ban Open Grazing And Save Nigeria

By Dr. O.A. Ayinde

There comes a moment in the life of every nation when it must choose between the perilous convenience of silence and the redemptive courage of action. That moment has come, and it stands at your feet, draped in the garments of grief, soaked in the blood of innocents, and begging for a presidential response that history will not redact and posterity will not regret.

Sir, Nigeria is not merely under threat; she is under siege. From the crimson fields of Benue to the ashes of Plateau, from the heartache of Southern Kaduna to the trembling silence of Ebonyi, Enugu, and the hinterlands of the West—our soil has become a canvas of carnage. Our forests, once hallowed havens of life and livelihood, have become altars of abduction, arenas of terror, and tombs for the defenseless. Yet, through the smoke of this national tragedy, we await your voice—not just in sympathy, but in sovereign authority.

Mr. President, when herders abandon their herds for harm, when cows become camouflage for carnage, when pastoralism is weaponized into predation, and when silence from the summit of power is interpreted as sanction—then the sacred duty of leadership must be invoked with fire and finality. It is no longer a question of agricultural policy; it is a matter of national preservation.

You established a Ministry of Livestock Development—visionary in concept, yet seemingly voiceless in crisis. The blood of our people cannot be pacified with institutional poetry. It must be answered with bold, enforceable action. For what is the purpose of a ministry that cannot minister to the bleeding? What is the essence of reform if it cannot restrain the ruin? The time has come, Mr. President, to let the law speak louder than tribal sentiment—to let executive courage drown out political cowardice.

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This is not a call for vendetta; it is a plea for vision. A nation cannot modernize while holding hostage to medieval practices. Open grazing, in a country of over 200 million citizens with ever-shrinking arable land, is not just obsolete—it is outrageously dangerous. Nations far less endowed have embraced ranching and technology-driven livestock systems. Why must we insist on fertilizing our future with corpses and cultivating chaos in the name of culture?

And let it be known, sir, that once open grazing is outlawed, the veil of pretense will be torn asunder. Those who have long hidden under the guise of herders to perpetrate heinous crimes—kidnappings, murders, land grabs, terrorism—will have no cloak left. Their masks will fall. Their networks will unravel. Their impunity will be exposed. The forests will speak. The blood of the innocent will cry no more in vain. This singular action, more than a thousand speeches, will demystify the monster and reveal the real enemies of the Nigerian people.

Your Excellency, leadership is not the luxury of comfort, but the burden of courage. The destiny of millions rests not in your ability to appease a few, but in your willingness to protect the many. Now is the hour to inscribe your name in the granite of national rebirth. Ban open grazing through an Executive Order. Let it echo from the creeks to the Sahel, from the valleys to the savannah—that Nigeria has chosen progress over pandemonium, and principle over politics.

Let not our children inherit a country where forests are feared, and farms are forsaken. Let them rise one day and say: “There lived a President who, when tested by fire, stood for the people; who heard the tears of the land and responded not with excuses, but with executive resolve.” Sir, this is your moment—transcend the politics, rise above the pressure, and become the statesman history remembers, not the politician history revises.

Heaven bears witness. The land groans beneath injustice. And history, with her pen already poised, waits to record your response. May your name be etched not in the ink of regret, but in the gold of gallantry. For in every nation’s story, there is a page that determines the tone of the chapters that follow. This, Mr. President, is that page.

Ban open grazing now. No more delay. Ban now.