One of the umbrella bodies of herdsmen in Nigeria, the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, says herders won’t support any southern candidate who is against open grazing should he or she run for president in 2023.
Speaking in an interview, the Miyetti Allah spokesman said his group won’t support southern governors or any southern candidate who is against open grazing and who also oppose the collection of Value Added Tax by the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Asked whether his group would back a northern candidate after the expiration of the eight-year regime of President Muhammadu Buhari, Alhassan said, “Our concern is not where the President comes from but certainly we know those that we cannot support; those that want to destroy our means of livelihood, we would campaign against them. “We are not worried where the President comes from but we need a competent nationalistic person to take over from Buhari. We don’t need people with sectional sentiments; people that think they can make exclusive economic policies, people that think their zones should have more preference, they want to control the VAT, destroy our traditional livelihood”.
“The governors can say anything but ultimately, the votes determine who becomes the President. “If you say you are producing (Ondo State Governor and Chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum, Rotimi Akeredolu as a southern candidate, we would never support him because he is championing the destruction of our rural economy. People like that, we would never support them”.
