Matters arising over Buhari’s cattle ranch policy

The move by the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to set up cattle ranches across ten states in the country, have continued to generate reactions from Nigerians.

In a move aimed at finding a lasting solution to the raging crisis between farmers and herdsmen in the country, the government said it has budgeted over 170 billion for the project which would take off in ten pilot states namely; Adamawa, Benue, Ebonyi, Edo, Kaudna, Nasarawa, Oyo, Pleateau, Taraba and Zamfara.

Announcing the agreement last Tuesday in Abuja at the unveiling of the National Economic Council’s National Livestock Transformation Plan, Secretary of the NEC Sub-Committee, Andrew Kwasari, said the amount would be spent in the first three years of the pilot phase of the programme, over a period of 10 years.

“The National Livestock Implementation Plan is a mediation stemming from meetings and recommendations of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and NEC in 2017 as regards state interventions following the incessant pastoralists-farmers conflicts.

“A ranch design has also been proposed in models of various sizes clustered in 94 locations in the 10 pilot states to reduce the struggle for common resources.”

“Based on the carrying capacity of each of the model ranches above, as determined by pasture and fodder yields, land is allocated for pasture production,” Kwasari explained.

National cattle breed for dairy and beef production over a 10-year period. The plan envisages cross-breeding scheme with exotic semen of Brahman on Sokoto/Adamawa.

However, political leaders and Nigerians have expressed divergent views on the government move.

Southern, middle -belt leaders, in a statement jointly signed by Yinka Odumakin , South West, Bassey Henshaw, South South, Chigozie Ogbu , South East, and Isuwa Dogo, kicked against the move, noting that cattle ranching was a private business that should not be funded with public funds.

The forum, however, commended the decision of the government to embrace ranching for cattle rearers, as against earlier insistence on archaic open grazing and old cattle routes, but kicked against using the public fund to set them up.

“The decision to ignore this sensible recommendation has led to a situation where untold terror has been unleashed on farming communities with needless loss of hundreds of lives in the last 3 years with not a soul under prosecution and top functionaries of the administration making excuses for the killers.

“We, however, object to the Federal Government’s decision to spend N179bn of public funds to build these ranches over 10 years starting with N70bn under this administration. “Cattle-rearing is a private business in which individuals make billions of Naira with no record of what they pay as taxes.

The herdsmen/farmers clashes have been raging for years and have consumed thousands of lives across the country, while also displacing several hundreds.

However, the lack of a clear cut policy to deal with clashes by the Buhari-administration since assuming office in 2015 has exacerbated the killings and led to insinuations that the government was culpable.

Political analyst and radio commentator, Jimi Disu, commended the government moves, stressing that there was the need for a drastic action to curb the incessant killings across the country.

The government move is needed and commendable and it should be encouraged rather than the current criticism it is getting. Can you imagine how much lives have been lost over the last few years? We have to do something and that is what the government has done, folding our arms would not solve the crisis; the killings by the herdsmen must be stopped.

However, a chieftain of the Green Party (GP), Jolaosho Yemi, supported the government moves, but called for caution, noting that such funds should be sources from other avenues instead of government pulse.

“We need to stop the killings, imagine how many lives have been lost this year alone, in Benue, Taraba and in many other states the killings have been on for years, yet nothing has been done. There has to be a solution but that money is too much; cattle rearing is a private business; let them source for money through other avenues”, Yemi advised.