Restructuring, Ban On Open Grazing Will Strengthen Nigeria’s Unity – Delta Governor

The Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, has said that the decision of the Southern states’ governors to ban open grazing and call for the restructuring of the country was meant to strengthen the unity of the country.

The Southern Governors had met on Tuesday in Delta State to discuss critical issues including the farmer-herder crisis which has resulted in ruptures across Nigeria.

On Friday, the governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, while appearing on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ warned that Governors should be careful on how they approach the issue of restructuring.

But Okowa, who hosted the Southern Governors on Tuesday said the governors were only re-echoing the voices of their people.

“We thank all our brothers in the south for coming together to speak for our people. The things that we’ve said are not new. It’s just the voice of our people that we have continued to echo.

“But unfortunately I read in the papers that somebody says we ought not to talk about certain things, being elected people. If the voice of your people has been heard madly and they’ve continued to talk and you are an elected person and you shy away from giving further voice to their voices, then you ought not to be in the position that you occupy.

“We reaffirmed that as a people, as elected Governors, we believe in the unity of our country. But we also went forth to advance the need for certain things to be done in order to give strength to that unity. That cannot be a reason for us to be vilified, obviously not.

“We talked about restructuring, which has been on the table for so long. Both the voices of the PDP and the APC itself have endorsed restructuring. And restructuring is all-inclusive and all-encompassing. We may have different views, different approaches to the restructuring, but when we sit on the table in dialogue, we will be able to agree best on what is good for Nigeria and what is good for the parts of Nigeria,” Okowa said.