President Bola Tinubu has been accused of lacking an in-depth understanding of the security situation bedeviling the country.
Tinubu’s call for herders to stop open grazing, relinquish illicit weapons, and fully transition to ranching has sparked outrage from the country’s major opposition parties.
In an exclusive interview with Sunday PUNCH, representatives from the Labour Party, African Democratic Congress, and Peoples Democratic Party accused the Tinubu administration of using “rhetoric,” lacking strategy, and misdiagnosing Nigeria’s security situation.
On Wednesday, the president launched a new national livestock strategy with the goal of eliminating farmer-herder conflict and gun violence in rural communities.
The program, which is part of the government’s broader security reforms and the work of the newly formed Ministry of Livestock, also encourages herder associations to embrace ranching and collaborate with security services.
Tinubu’s decision came in the midst of increased student abductions in Niger and Kebbi schools, as well as ongoing farmer-herder confrontations across the North Central region, which have killed hundreds in recent months.
However, opposition parties argue that the decision demonstrates that the president misunderstands the nature of Nigeria’s insecurity.
“It is an organized criminal invasion,” said the spokesperson for the LP, Obiora Ifoh.
Ifoh mentioned that the insecurity ravaging the country was being perpetrated by terrorists.
“It is a case of terrorists invading the serenity of the nation. It’s not about the herders. Yes, I agree some terrorists disguise themselves as herders, thereby making it difficult for you to isolate or differentiate who is genuinely a herder and who is a terrorist. But it’s the work that government must do.”
Ifoh noted that many of the recent attacks, including school invasions and church assaults, were carried out by armed groups who had nothing to do with cattle rearing.
“Did the people who came to invade the schools in the North come with any herd? No. What about the ones who attacked the church in Kwara? They are not herders.
“The terrorists doing these things are doing it because they want to make more money to buy more arms to control the invasion. So, it is up to the federal government to up the ante and do something good about it. But if they are willing, they can do something,” he stated.
Similarly, the African Democratic Congress characterized the president’s directive as empty rhetoric.
Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC National Publicity Secretary, questioned the policy’s viability.
He said, “Have you seen any herder carrying weapons? The ones they claim move around with firearms—are they carrying them about in the city? Some of these announcements are declarative, just for newspaper headlines.
“They don’t even have an idea how they want to implement it. For instance, they just declared a state of emergency on security. What does that mean in real terms? What should we expect to see?”
The ADC imagemaker claimed that the government’s latest security statements, including a state of emergency, had not resulted in apparent action.
“When you woke up this morning, was your life different than it was yesterday? It’s just another rhetoric to grab newspaper headlines, that’s all.”
Abdullahi also criticized the Tinubu administration’s proposal to hire 30,000 more police personnel, claiming there is no infrastructure and ammunition to train them.
He said, “You are announcing that you want to hire 30,000 more policemen. Where will you put them and the existing policemen? Go and check their barracks. Where will they get the ammunition to even train them? Meanwhile, they train them with sticks.
“Even the existing policemen, you need to see how they count bullets to give them. So, a lot of very terrible things are going on. When they make this kind of statement, I doubt if the president is even aware of the depth of the decay. You are building an army when the war has already started.”
The PDP took a tougher stance, accusing Tinubu of being out of touch with realities on the ground.
PDP Deputy National Youth Leader, Timothy Osadolor, stated that the President’s directive lacked depth.
“The President is just coming down to talk without even knowing what is happening around him. I am sure somebody told him that if he says something like that, it will resonate with the Nigerian people.
“Tinubu doesn’t even know what is happening. That is the truth. The problem is not armed herders,” he lamented.
Osadolor stressed that open grazing remains a major driver of tension and urged herders to acquire land or return to their ancestral communities.
“Animal husbandry is a private business, and until it is treated as such, we will continue to have problems. Like farmers and other businesses, let these herdsmen also purchase land for grazing or go back to their ancestral communities to rear them. May God help anybody who comes to my ancestral land in the name of pacifying herders,” he warned.
The PDP chieftain also condemned the practicality of the policy.
“So how does Tinubu plan to go about his policy? Is he going to queue up all the herdsmen in this country and start asking them one after the other if they own arms?” he queried.
Citing a recent viral video of a customs officer claiming to have handed seized grains to bandits, Osadolor said that the government looked to be aware of the presence of criminal sects.
“These are issues that should be taken seriously in a sane society. They should have invited that customs officer to come and show us the location of the bandits they gave the bags of rice to. It means his government knows where they are.
“If a senior government official in the Customs can be saying they know where they are and even give them a treat with illegal rice they impounded, it means there is a problem. So as 2027 approaches, Nigerians should brace themselves for more rhetoric and grand speeches. We should be able to demand accountability and ask for change,” he argued.
The remarks followed Senator Francis Fadahunsi’s (APC, Osun East) repeated calls for the National Assembly to legalize controlled civilian gun ownership in response to increased insecurity.
During plenary, Fadahunsi warned his colleagues that Nigeria is “at war” and must study measures used in “about 120 countries” that enable civilians to carry arms.
“If the elite and a few of us who are okay are carrying guns, it will be war against these criminals, and they will run away because there are not many of them,” he said.
He also called for death penalties for kidnappers and negotiators while questioning the competence of the current defense leadership.
“The Commander-in-Chief needs to look at the military architecture around him and do the needful.”
