One of the umbrella bodies for herders in Nigeria, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), has asked governors to “settle pastoralists” with grazing reserves designated for herders in the 1960s.

MACBAN President, Baba Othman-Ngelzarma, who featured live on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Wednesday, believed that the “preservation” and the “protection” of grazing reserves, especially those in the 19 northern states would address the intractable and internecine challenge of farmer-herder crisis.

Othman-Ngelzarma, who spoke hours after President Bola Tinubu announced the creation of a new ministry for livestock development, explained that the livestock sector could turn around the economy of Nigeria if well-tapped.

He said the end value chain benefits of the cows raised in the northern region are enjoyed by the southern part of the country.

The MACBAN boss said herders are not interested in land grabbing but settlements.

“Talking about land grabbing, even in the northern part of the country where the pastoralists belong, they don’t have lands. They don’t care about land; they stay in the forests (and) when development reaches them, they move further into the forests,” he said.

Will Open Grazing Stop?

Asked whether the creation of the new ministry would stop herders from open grazing, Othman-Ngelzarma said, “If the right people are put to manage the activities of that ministry. If good representatives, professionals are put there.”

“We are never against settlement; we are for settlement but what model of settlement? We just have to evolve a model of settlement to stop the roaming because it is not going to be sustained. The population is growing and it will continue to grow against a land that doesn’t increase. So, this calls for an effective planning of the land.”

Asked further whether state governors would have to give the herders land for settlement or ranching, the MACBAN leader said, “Do they need the state governments to give them (herders) lands? We have areas that are dedicated as grazing reserves.

“We have about 415 of them all located in the northern part of the country covering about six million hectares of land. There are some encroachments on them but if you minus the encroachments, you will still have about five million hectares of land that are dedicated for grazing, have laws for them for grazing, the lands are there.

“Do we need anybody’s land? The reason why we are calling for the protection and preservation of those lands is that if we are going to settle the pastoralists, they need lands to be settled.

“Since there are dedicated areas that are designated for settlement for grazing, those areas can be used to settle the pastoralists but there has to be a model of settlement because this roaming while looking for pastures is not going to be sustained even in the northern part of the country because of the increase of the population, because of challenges of climate change and what have you. So, there has to be effective planning for the two professions – farming and herding – to co-exist peacefully.”

The MACBAN chief, who applauded Tinubu for the new ministry, faulted the National Livestock Transformation Plan introduced by then President Muhammadu Buhari, saying whilst over ₦500bn was spent on agriculture, none was budgeted for livestock.

Decades-Long Clashes

In 2021, Buhari reignited talks about the outdated National Grazing Reserve Law of 1965 when he set up a committee to collate data on grazing routes to assess levels of encroachment and make recommendations for gazetting of ungazetted grazing reserves.

The presidential pronouncement was meant to solve the farmer-herder crisis but it boomeranged and sparked outrage from many Nigerians and some governors, especially the 17 governors in Southern Nigeria who resisted the outmoded policy of resurrecting grazing reserves and routes in the country, with many of them vowing to seek legal redress. The matter died a natural death as southern governors took it further and unanimously banned open grazing in their domains.

Many farmers have been sacked from their farmlands by violent herders whose roaming cows eat up crops and desecrate their plantations.

Some farmers have not been lucky as they are sometimes mauled to death by vicious trespassing herders or kidnapped only to be released after hefty ransom have been paid.

Some innocent herders have also suffered losses when their cows stray into farmlands whose crops were poisoned by vengeful farmers.

President Tinubu, when he inaugurated the Presidential Committee on Livestock Reforms on Tuesday, expressed optimism that with the new ministry and the committee’s mandate, the internecine crisis would be sufficiently addressed. (Channels TV)

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