Chuks Okocha
The Gan Allah Fulani Development Association (GAFDAN) has faulted the agreement reached between the South West Governors and the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) in Akure, Ondo State.
The Fulani group clearly said that the Miyetti Allah cannot represent the interest of the entire Fulani in Nigeria.
In a press statement signed by its National President, Alhaji Sale Bayari, the group disassociated itself from the agreement, saying it amounts to “shaving one’s head in his absence”.
According to the Fulani group, “As a law-abiding association, we shall not go into any unlawful, unconstitutional, and repressive agreement with any governor, president, or government, without reference to the ground norm law of our country, which is the constitution”.
The group contended that it was the same law that “established the GAFDAN as well as the MACBAN as voluntary, independent bodies that can sue and be sued as corporate entities”.
GAFDAN said that Miyetti Allah lacks the locus standi and every moral authorisation to speak for it or enter into any agreement with anybody or group on its behalf.
Thy described the agreement entered into by Miyetti Allah with the South West Governors as disturbing, and a betrayal, saying the resultant emergency national executive meeting of GAFDAN held in Jos resolved, among other issues , that membership of Miyetti Allah is voluntary just as the body is an ordinary corporate citizen registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
The group stressed that “both the governors and MACBAN did not have the consent, authority, or the approval of our own association or its members as herders to go into any such contract or agreement, on issues bordering on our members’ lives and means of livelihood as Nigerians”.
