Lai Mohammed Backs Restructuring, State Police, Opposes Open Grazing

Amidst the increasing agitations by various secessionist groups for independent sovereignties, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed has called for caution and a need to ensure dialogue.

Lai further opined that the “agitation for political restructuring is okay. However, what is not okay is the call for secession or for separation”.

The Minister made this disclosure during an interview on Channels Television’s Newsnight which aired on Monday.

According to him, the nation’s strength lies in its diversity.

“We would need more energy to break Nigeria than to fix it. As a matter of fact, the strength of Nigeria is its diversity. So everybody agreed that secession is not an option.”

Speaking on solutions to the farmers/herders’ clashes in some parts of the country, the Minister was vehemently against the long-age practice of open grazing.

Lai explained that the practice is unsustainable while saying that “ranches must be established all over, grazing reserves must be established.”

He also threw his support behind the creation of state police as a means of tackling the rising insecurity across the country.

However, the National Assembly and the States House of Assemblies need to work together in order for it to be achieved, Lai said.

Nigeria has been experiencing a series of security threats ranging from terrorism, banditry, militancy, cultism among others in several parts of the country.

The country has been battling terrorism for more than a decade which has reportedly killed over 36,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands in the northeast.