The Presidency has said that it has to stop herdsmen from roaming all over the country to prevent clashes with farmers.

The Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said this when he appeared on Channels Television‘s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday.

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“We have to stop these herders from roaming and eating up crops all over the country. They drive their cattle into farmlands and they eat up crops and the farmers fight back and the killings follow. This country cannot continue in this way,” he said.

Shehu blamed the roaming of the herdsmen on the drying up of grazing lands in the northern-most parts of Nigeria.

He said, “The encroachment by desert leading to the drying up of a lot of grazing lands in the northern-most parts of the country have put pressure on the herders who are looking southwards for green grass so that their cattle will eat and also have water to drink.

“It’s a global climate change situation which is unfortunate, considering what has happened around Lake Chad basin itself drying to up about only ten per cent of its original size.”

Shehu expressed delight that governors of the north-central are coming together to solve the problem of grazing.