The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, SMBLF, has faulted the positions of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Ita Enang, and the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, over the rejected issue of plan to establish Ruga settlements in different parts of the country.
Enang had explained that the project was not to colonise any part as widely believed and should be supported by the Southern states of the country.
In a statement issued by some of its leaders, Yinka Odumakin, South West; Senstor Bassey Henshaw, South-South; Prof Chigozie Ogbu, South South and Dr. Isua Dogo, Middle Belt, the group said Enang lied in his explanation of what the Ruga policy is about.
According to SMBLF, Enang’s campaign for Ruga was a show of desperation to be retained in his office as President Muhammadu Buhari’s special assistant.
It also warned the Senate President against attempt to bring back the “defeated bill through which the Executive arm sought to take over water banks across the country in pursuit of the Ruga policy and other domination quests.”
The Senate president’s flaunting of APC majority in the Senate, the forum stated, showed “a lack of understanding of the fact that national cohesion overrides the number of any party in parliament.”
The statement reads in full:
The attention of Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, SMBLF, has been drawn to statements credited to Senator Ita Enang, former Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters on the divisive and internal colonialism project called Ruga.
In a desperate effort to get re-appointed, Enang did overtime on dirty job spewing untruths and making wild claims.
He explained the word – RUGA – is not derived from Hausa or Fulani, but an acronym for Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) initiated in 1956 during the colonial era. This is a pure lie, we challenge him to tell us what Cow Settlement is called in Hausa other than Ruga.
He also assured it was not intended to Islamise, Fulanise or colonise anybody.
We want him to give us the number of Fulani who have indicated that they want to relocate to the South outside Fulanis from Senegal, Niger, Mali etc who will have territories created for them under Ruga policy. This is Fulanisation and colonialism.
He also said that the budgetary provision for Ruga is in volume 1 under the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural development item number ERGP 5208 where the sum of N2.258bn was provided and budgeted for the grazing programme and that the National Assembly members are not against the Ruga programme because they are aware of it and have been approving funds for its implementation.
We want him to hold our hands and show us Ruga in the budget. Even if it was put there wrong-headedly, must we pursue a programme that can break up the country because it was inserted in the budget? Has he never heard the word virement in all his days in the National Assembly?
He ended with a call on Southern states to drop opposition to the policy .
We of the Southern and Middle Belt communities are offering him halls free of charge in as many cities as he wants so he can engage on Ruga sensitisation tours to convince our peoples .
The SMBLF also warns the Senate Presudent, Senator Ahmad Lawan to stop debasing the Senate in his bid to convince the Executive arm of government that he is a rubber stamp.
We have noticed how he has been trying to bring up the defeated bill through which the Executive arm sought to take over water banks across the country in pursuit of the Ruga policy and other domination quests.
His flaunting of the APC majority in Senate shows a lack of understanding of the fact that national cohesion overrides the number of any party in parliament.
He should understudy how the British Parliament has behaved across party lines.
The wisdom of the Land Use Act in vesting lands in Governors through whom the Federal can apply for spaces for projects should never be violated in order not to heat up the polity.
Nigeria is presently in a precarious situation and all those who are holding temporary offices should not do permanent damage to the country.
