President Bola Tinubu’s directive urging herders to end open grazing, surrender illegal arms, and adopt ranching has drawn sharp criticism from major opposition parties, who accuse the administration of lacking strategy and misreading the roots of Nigeria’s insecurity.
In interviews with Sunday PUNCH, spokespersons of the Labour Party (LP), African Democratic Congress (ADC), and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dismissed the President’s new national livestock plan as “rhetoric” and argued that ongoing violence across the country has little to do with genuine herders.
The directive, issued Wednesday as part of the government’s broader security reforms and the newly created Ministry of Livestock’s mandates, aims to curtail long-running farmer–herder clashes and reduce rural armed attacks. It came amid a surge in school abductions in Niger and Kebbi States and persistent deadly conflict across the North-Central region.
But opposition figures say the President is misdiagnosing the problem.
LP spokesperson, Obiora Ifoh, insisted the crisis is driven by organised terrorist groups, not herders.
“It is an organised criminal invasion,” he said. “These are terrorists disguising as herders. The Federal Government must identify who is who. The attackers in schools and churches are not herders.”
ADC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, dismissed the directive as “another headline-grabbing announcement” with no clear implementation plan.
“Have you seen any herder carrying weapons in the city? These declarations are just for newspapers. Even the state of emergency on security—what does it change for ordinary Nigerians?” he asked.
Abdullahi also criticised the plan to recruit 30,000 police officers, citing inadequate facilities, training ammunition, and decaying barracks.
The PDP’s Deputy National Youth Leader, Tim Osadolor, took an even harder line, accusing the President of being out of touch.
“Tinubu doesn’t even know what is happening. The problem isn’t armed herders,” he said.
Osadolor added that herders must purchase grazing land like other private business operators, warning against land encroachment in rural communities.
He also questioned the practicality of disarming all herders one by one, citing a viral video of a Customs officer claiming to have supplied seized rice to bandits.
“If government officials claim to know where bandits are, then Nigeria has a bigger problem,” he said.
The growing criticism comes as Senator Francis Fadahunsi (APC, Osun East) renewed calls for legalising controlled civilian gun ownership. In a Senate plenary, he argued that Nigeria is “at war,” calling for stiffer penalties for kidnappers and a review of the nation’s military leadership.
Despite the backlash, the Tinubu administration maintains that ranching, border tightening, and disarming armed groups remain the only sustainable long-term solutions to the farmer–herder conflict and rural insecurity.
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