Nigerians from diverse ethnic and socio-cultural backgrounds are bickering over the proposed Ministry of Livestock Development, announced by President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday. The president had declared that the creation of the ministry wound be a solution to incessant farmers-herders clashes that have claimed so many lives and affected the nation’s food security.

President of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr Bitrus Pogu, said his group has all along advocated ranching rather than the current form of animal husbandry, which the Fulani ethnic group adopted, resulting in skirmishes.

He stressed that what Is happening now is a different ball game because some people came into this country through the protocol on free movement signed during the regime of Gen. Abdulsallami Abubakar, which allows the Fulani from other West African countries to come into Nigeria, to forcefully take over lands. He warned that the proposed ministry should have a regulatory agency with ranching policy.

“We are also going to make our own input when the ranching or the implementation starts. We believe it should be community based because a lot of the Fulani in our forests are not Nigerians; some of them are from Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, etc.

“These people should go back to their countries, while our local Fulani will be accommodated and allowed to ranch their cattle around if infrastructure could be provided by the ministry.

“But, it shouldn’t be a blanket thing because we cannot accommodate Fulani from other countries who have been brought in deliberately to change demographics and create problems in Nigeria,” Pogu said.

Also reacting, a former President of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), who was also the 2023 Labour Party governorship candidate in the state, Dr. Jonathan Asake, said any step that is being taken or any policy by the government, once it doesn’t have a sincerity of purpose and the political will of execution will go the same way that others have gone.

Rev. John Hayab, President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), said the insecurity which has always been projected as farmers-herders clashes, is more than what it is believed to be.

“We have people killing innocent Nigerians and we still continue to call it farmers-herders crisis, and that is why we have not been able to tackle the problem. There is a government, it has every right to come up with ideas it believes will help it solve her problems. How it is going to work, time will tell.

“The president is just creating more job opportunities for people or for his friends and appointing them to head those ministries. Unless we tackle the real issue, we will continue going in circle every day.”

Prof. Yusuf Turaki, one of the conveners of Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance (NINAS), said he doesn’t have any problem with the proposed ministry. The reason he said, is that “when the government goes into it, then it would be revealed whether what they intended it to be is exactly what it is.”

He recalled that the issue was debated in the National Assembly and the house was divided between the north, the South and the Middle Belt. The South and Middle Belt are opposed to open grazing; the only people who are in support of it are the far North.

According to the professor, the president is playing the political game in order to please the far north, “but we will know better, once the ministry is set up, we don’t know how they are going to implement it. Go back to RUGA, go back to ranches, go back to cattle colony, etc. are all the policies meant to fast rack those nomenclatures of Fulani getting a foothold in Nigeria?

Going down memory lane, he said, in those days, the Fulani only came to the Middle Belt in the dry season, and when it was rainy season, they went back to the far north in order to avoid clashes between the farmers and herders.

“I was a member of Kaduna State Peace and Reconciliation Committee after the 2011 crisis in the North over former President Goodluck Jonathan. We went to the northern part of Kaduna State and the Fulani were complaining to us that the Hausa people have blocked all their ways and routes that they can’t go back to the far North and the Hausa communities in the northern part of the state said that when they do farming that Fulani people would come with their cattle to eat their crops. So they blocked them. Farmers have blocked the cattle routes that were free in the far North.

“They told them that you cannot come back to the far North, and they should go back to where they came from. That is why the Fulani are now stuck in the Middle Belt. They stay there for the whole year. In those days, it was only in the dry season that they would stay in the Middle Belt areas, in the rainy season they moved back to the far north. The Hausa people have denied them going back to the far north. So, they now stay in the Middle Belt and cause havoc.

“Beyond that, the political and religious ideologies that the Hausa-Fulani are carrying, is that of Fulanisation and Islamisation. These two ideologies are driving all these problems. What is Fulanisation? Fulani don’t have land; the Hausa have been telling them that you don’t have land. Secondly, there is desertification in the far North, so the Fulani are now moving South; they have gone beyond the Middle Belt and they have occupied some parts in the South-west, South-east and the South-south. This is Fulanisation.

“Now, in order to have Muslims in the North to support their Fulanisation, they have coined Islamisation. So, a Fulani man is carrying two agendas – Fulanisation, which is land grabbing in the Middle Belt and in the far South, and then, Islamisation is to use religion to get the whole world to support them.

“Now, the federal government wants to create the Ministry of Livestock Development, when you look at the proposal, it looks agriculturally fine, but underneath it, you have these two things, Fulanisation and Islamisation. This ministry may go beyond it in order to implement these two.

“One agenda that the Fulani have as their most powerful tool that is more powerful and stronger than jihad (physical fight) is immigration. That is what they are doing. The Ministry of Livestock will now implement the RUGA philosophy, the River Basin philosophy the ranches philosophy and the Cattle colony philosophy, etc. This is what it would come to be.

“The Ministry of Livestock will be an instrument of hidden immigration to bring in more Fulani from all over Africa to Nigeria. Buhari started this policy and he carried it out successfully.

“Who is going to man this Ministry of Livestock Development? Is it not going to be a Fulani, or would they ask an Ijaw man to be the minister? It is a Trojan horse, the Southerners may not understand it; they may think it is just an agricultural policy. It is more than an agricultural policy,” Turaki said.

The Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has said it is not against the creation of Ministry of Livestock Development for as long as it brings an end to herders-farmers’ clashes.

National Publicity Secretary of the group, Mr. Jare Ajayi, told Saturday Sun: “Any step that will put a permanent stop to attacks on farmers by herders is welcomed for as long as such a step does not compromise the interest and integrity of the local people and their land.”

Ajayi observed that the thinking in government was probably informed by the failure of the Ten-Year Livestock Transformation Plan that was launched in 2019. He added that the plan was designed to curtail movement of cattle, boost livestock production, stop cattle rustling and halt herders-farmers’ clashes. But the plan did not see the light of the day.

“There is no doubt that the failure of the plan has led to, in large part, escalation in herders-farmers clashes and dearth of meat and dairy products.”

“Ordinarily, there are relevant departments within the existing Ministry of Agriculture to take care of what the proposed Ministry is being designed for, especially at this time that there is a compelling need to reduce costs of governance. Notwithstanding, government must continue with the implementation of Oronsanye Report.”

On the other hand, Secretary-General, Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), Chief Oladipo Oyewole, has said the council has perused the intention and purpose for which the new Ministry of Livestock Development was introduced, and found it to be in order.

He told Saturday Sun that the Yoruba elders have faith in the survival, restoration of peace, progress and economic stability in Nigeria under President Bola Tinubu, “if some Nigerians are yet to see through the tunnel.”

Oyewole stated: “We see it as an advantage to the wellbeing of the Nigerian economy, particularly because it is a way to move Nigeria forward and another way to reconcile herders and farmers, after the long drawn battle for survival.

“It is, in accordance with our understanding, a quick way to curb famine in the land, when farmers in the South, particularly in the South-west return to their farms.

“We would like to think along with the new ministry that rules and regulations will be established to guard and guide cattle rearing and grazing in such a way that the North and the South will co-exist amicably without further acrimony and damage done to the future of Nigeria and Nigerians.

For Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, spokesperson for the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), the creation of Ministry of Livestock Development is a welcome development, but belated. Curiously, he canvassed the idea of a National Policy on Grazing and Livestock Development (NPGLD) to cater for the needs of all the pastoral communities everywhere in the country.

Suleiman said, the Northern Elders Forum had long before now, canvassed for this and other government interventions that could be effective in checking the lingering conflicts.

“The federal and state governments should immediately identify suitable lands across the country and create grazing reserves and cattle routes, and where resistance is shown, to expropriate such land as may be required for the purpose through resort to extant provisions of the Land Use Act and other related laws.

“The proclamation of a National Policy on Grazing and Livestock Development (NPGLD) to cater for the needs of all the pastoral communities everywhere in the country is also necessary. Another measure should be the immediate setting up of a National Pastoralist Commission (NPC) to act on all matters affecting the wellbeing and interests of all citizens whose livelihoods depend on livestock rearing.

“Successive governments have found it expeditious to establish structures like OMPADEC, NDDC, Ministry of Niger Delta, the Amnesty Programme, etc aimed at resolving a specific set of challenges affecting specific communities in the South. There is therefore no justification whatsoever to resist or even question the creation of special initiatives to address the needs of herdsmen if these will lead to lasting peace and stability.

“Government should also immediately proclaim Special Intervention Initiative through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Ministries of Finance, National Planning, Agriculture and Water Resources, for supporting special livestock development policies and the establishment of special funds to support pastoral communities along the lines of the Anchor Borrowers Programme and other types of federal government interventions.

In his own reaction, former ACF Scribe, Sani, said, “I think it is a healthy development, considering life stocks are depleting at a very fast rate due to lack of know-how and wherewithal for modern practice needed to improve both quality and quantity of livestock. A Ministry of life Stock Development would go a long way towards addressing challenges in productivity in life stock industry. The ministry would also tame the prevalent clashes between farmers and herders, thereby improving security and low productivity by both farmers and herders.”

But contrary to the views expressed by proponents of the new ministry, a leading Igbo group, the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) has faulted the creation of the ministry, describing it as very unnecessary and wasteful.

ADF accused the president of pursuing pro-herders agenda which it said was inimical to the intent and spirit of true federalism.

National Secretary of the group, Chief Abia Onyike said that livestock is just a unit in the Department/Ministry of Agriculture, so, did not deserve to be a full-fledged ministry.

Onyike also called on the president to make his policies and programmes clear, noting that the creation of the new ministry has seemingly justified the fears in some quarters that government was determined to grab and cede lands to Fulani herders.

“When you create the Ministry of Livestock Development and appoint a northerner as Minister, he will pursue a pro-herders agenda and the excesses of the herdsmen would become more virulent. That cannot be a solution to the problems at hand. The Tinubu administration should stop the proliferation of ministries rather the existing ones should act optimally to execute their mandates,” Onyike said.

Similarly, a socio-cultural organization in Benue State, Mzough U Tiv (MUT), has described the creation of the ministry as not only uncalled for but also unacceptable.

President General of the organization, CP Iorbee High (rtd.), told our correspondent in Makurdi that creating the ministry was aimed at helping the Fulani; to empower them so that they and their cows will be accepted everywhere.

“I expected Tinubu, as soon as he came in, to send this Fulani that came from Niger and Chad back to their countries so that IDPs can go back to the ancestral homes to continue farming. We are the food baskets of the nation but we are not farming because these Fulani with their AK-47 are killing our people and then the president Is creating a ministry for them why,” he queried. (Saturday Sun)

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