Introduction
Social media was abuzz, last week, with public reaction (mostly negative) to the comparison by the Hon. Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, of the ban on open grazing of cattle in the South, with a similar (albeit hypothetical) restriction on the sale of auto spare parts in Northern Nigeria. He made that allusion as a reaction to that part of a 12-point declaration by the 17 Governors of Southern Nigeria (“the Asaba Declaration”) two weeks ago. Were those criticisms justified, or was the Hon. Attorney-General right? We shall attempt a few – admittedly subjective – answers, as well as a review of other seemingly controversial parts of what has now turned out to be the Mother of all Declarations (pardon the pun).