CAN reacts to presidency’s comment that Nigerians can only own land when alive

Adebayo Oladeji

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), has faulted the explanation by the Presidency on why states should adopt ranching.

Recall that the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina had said that people can only own lands when they were alive

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Adesina made the comment in reaction to the challenges faced by the government in acquiring land to build ranches for Fulani herdsmen

Reacting, Pastor Adebayo Oladeji, spokesman to CAN President, Rev Dr Samson Olasupo Ayokunle, in a statement, expressed the body’s disappointment on the “ungodly and unlawful counsel of the Presidency”.

He said: “This position is reprehensible, satanic, wicked and it shows how serious the government is to the protection of lives and property of the citizens.

“The only time such a directive was given was during the tyrannical leadership of Ahab when he killed Naboth who refused to let go of his inherited land to the greedy, wicked and the ungodly king. Although he succeeded in killing Naboth, but the wrath of God did not spare his family despite his remorsefulness.

In a related development, The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, recently came hard on the President Muhammadu Buhari’s media team for “converting” the presidential media department to “the propaganda wing” of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association, stressing that the “ignominious role” of the presidential media office is “disheartening and amounts to a grave threat to national security.”

This was contained in a statement issued by the national coordinator of HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, which accused the office of the Presidential Media Adviser of “coordinating the purported denial of the original interview granted to the Jos based Correspondent of The Nation by the North Central leader of Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association, Alhaji Danladi Ciroma in which he admitted that the recent attacks in Barkin Ladi was a retaliatory strike for the purported theft of 300 cows by the local communities that witnessed the unleashing of bloody violence by armed Fulani herdsmen”.

“This is a direct confrontation to the constitutional oath of office sworn to by the President not to allow his ethno-religious interests becloud the implementation of policies that promote and protect national interests.”

It called for “the immediate sack of the entire Presidential media crew of the Presidency for converting a public office to a private media machinery of suspected perpetrators of terror attacks against farming communities that are mostly Christians in the North central region of Nigeria”.