Cattle traders are facing an existential threat, especially in the northeastern part of Nigeria, with stakeholders calling for urgent intervention to save the sector.

Investigation by Weekend Trust revealed that as a result of the spate of insecurity ravaging parts of the country and the ban on open grazing in some states, with no serious alternatives like ranches put on ground, cattle breeders are forced to migrate to countries like Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Sudan and Central Africa.

Our correspondents who went round and interacted with market officials, cattle traders and residents across the North-East region, report that stakeholders in the business are worried over the dwindling fortune of their businesses.

Data generated after months of market survey in 63 different markets across the North-East indicate that 593 trailer-loads of cattle are transported to the southern part of Nigeria on a daily basis. The survey also revealed that each trailer, on average, carries 42 cows, which summed up to 25,499 being supplied to the South, especially Lagos, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Akwa Ibom, Onitsha, Uyo and others.

Based on state-by-state reports, Yobe now contributes 223 trailers as against the 400 it used to supply from 12 major cattle markets, Adamawa 200 instead of 300 from 12 cattle markets in the state.

Borno now supplies 50 trailers daily instead of 100 from its four major markets, while Gombe contributes 50 trailers as against over 80 from seven markets. Also, Taraba now supplies 40 trailers daily instead of 70, while Bauchi can only boast of 10 trailers daily compared to 40 it supplied years back.

However, these figures do not include the number of cattle being consumed everyday within the region and other parts of northern Nigeria.

Apart from the famous Potiskum cattle market in Yobe, cows are loaded from other major markets in Garin Alkali; Nguru; Geidam; Babban Gida; Damaturu; Kukareta, Yadin Buni, Ngalda, Jajere, Borno Kiti, Girgir, among others.

Market officials who spoke with Weekend Trust said pressure on herders, coupled with the spate of insecurity in the region, affected the number of cattle in the markets.

Malam Adamu Garba, the Potiskum cattle market superintendent under the Fika Emirate Council, told Weekend Trust that there?s a sharp drop in cattle supply in the region. He said, ?Before now, more than 400 trailers of cattle were leaving this market to the South on a weekly basis; but today, we can only boast of 200 trucks, which is 28 trailers per day.?

He said the decrease in supply was noticed from October 2023 to January 2024.

Alhaji Bello Bulama, the head of Garin Alkali cattle market, also confirmed a decrease in the number of cows supplied to the market.

?The supply kept dropping over time ? from 70 trucks to 50. Now, we are getting less than 40 trucks on market days (Sundays). We now transport less than 30 trucks of cattle to the southern part of the country weekly as against the previous supply ? between 60 and 50,? he said.

Also speaking, Alhaji Muhammad Dala Mala, the Zango of Nguru Emirate Council, who was a leader at Nguru cattle market, confirmed the decrease in the number of cattle being supplied to the market.

He said, ?To be honest with you, only between 30 and 50 trailers go out with cattle every Tuesday, unlike before when we pushed out over 100. It is a situation that every cattle trader should worry about.?

Also, Shettima Alhaji Umaru, the secretary of the Geidam Cattle Market Association, said the unfavourable situation breeders found themselves in was affecting the flow of cattle into the market.

?Unfortunately, we sometimes have less than 12 trucks going out of the market. Before now, you would see over 50 trucks going out with cattle every week,? he said.

Gombe

In Gombe State, the national president of the Cattle Sellers Association of Nigeria (CSAN), Alhaji Yahuza Yusuf, said that at least 50 trailers of cattle were transported to the southern part of the country every day, as against the over 80 in the past.

He said the cows were transported to the southern part of the country from seven major markets out of the 11 in the state: Gombe metropolis, Kashere, Lailaipido, Kurugu, Kumo, Kuri and Dukku.

200 trucks leave Adamawa

In Adamawa, against the 500 trailers of cattle that used to go out of the state years back, only 200 trucks now go to the southern part of the country every week.

The markets where the survey was conducted were Ganye, Mayo Belwa, Jada, Ngurore, Chigari, Gurin, Lafiya, Song, Gombi, Mubi and Toungo. Of these, Song, Mubi, Ganye, Ngurore, Gombi and Toungo are international cattle markets that receive and sell cattle within Nigeria and across the border to Cameroon.

Our correspondent gathered that each trailer carries 50 to 55 cows, depending on the destination, ?which means that a total of 10,000 or 11,000 cattle leave Adamawa on a weekly basis,? our source said, adding that sellers pay N3,000 per cow as tax.

Borno supply crashes to 50 trailers

In Borno, Abubakar Adam Umar, the secretary of the Cattle Market Management Committee (CMMC), said the closure of some cattle markets for a long time as a result of Boko Haram insurgency affected the business.

Based on data generated from the seven affected markets in Gubio, Magumeri, Damasak, Mungono, Gajiram, Banki and the popular Gamboru livestock market, Umar said: ?We usually get eight to 12 trailers loaded with cows from Gamboru market to Lagos, Port Harcourt, Umuahia, Calabar and other southern parts of the country. But sadly, in a week, less than 50 trailers now leave Borno instead of the over 200 that used to go out daily.?

He lamented how cattle traders lost their animals during crises, saying: ?You will find traders that usually supply four trailers now struggling to buy three cows. Many cattle traders lost their capitals to crises in the South as well. Our members are always the target of attack whenever crisis erupts. Even cattle breeders in the bush are not spared. The government needs to look into that.?

He added that a lot of cattle dealers affected by such attacks were idle, even as the situation is compounded by the prolonged Boko Haram crisis.

He noted that cattle business in many markets that serve as feeders to the renowned Gamboru market were dying slowly due to shortage of the animals in the bushes.

He said: ?There is very little supply from the Gamboru Ngala route, Dikwa and other feeder cattle markets.

?When the business was booming, these were very reliable markets that produced a large percentage of cattle in the region.

?The Gamboru market, which supplied between 200 and 250 trailers of cattle to the South daily, is now struggling to send 50 per week. Considering the situation, at most, when the market fully recovers, our projection will not exceed 100 trailers.?

Also speaking, Malam Adamu Damina, a cattle dealer and respected elder at the Gamboru cattle market, Maiduguri, said the rate at which cattle were migrating was alarming.

Damina, who has been in the business for over 35 years, blamed unfavourable actions taken against cattle breeders for the situation.

?For over 35 years, I have been buying cows from markets in Dikwa, Banki, Gamboru Ngala, Monguno, Gubio, Damboa, Damasak and Dikwa, but the situation now is precarious.

?Then, cows were always available, such that one could buy as many as one desired. We used to transport hundreds of trailers from Dikwa to Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri, Umuahia, Awka and other parts in the South-East, South-South and South-West.

?At that time, on average, we used to transport between 270 and 300 trailers of cattle every day, but now, we hardly transport 30 trailers to the entire South per week,? he said.

Bauchi

In Bauchi, cows are also brought to small and bigger markets that operate on daily and weekly bases.

Some of the markets our correspondent checked are Soro, Azare, Alkaleri and Bauchi.

The Sarkin Turke Bauchi, Alhaji Musa Firo, told Weekend Trust that cattle business was still thriving despite a sharp decline in the number of cows that come into the markets.

He said, ?Some years back, over 40 trailers used to leave the state daily, but we are currently struggling with 20 from all parts of the state.?

Taraba transports only 300

The Sarkin Turke/chairman of Chede cattle market, Alhaji Alasan, told our correspondent in an interview that over 300 trailers left the 10 major markets to the southern part of the country weekly. He added that each of the 10 markets transported about 30 trailers weekly.

He attributed the decline to insecurity and certain policies of the government.

Supply to Lagos drops

Alhaji Audu Lalega, a cattle dealer in Lagos State, confirmed that there?s a decline in the number of cows being supplied to the southern part of the country.

He said Lagos now received about 250 trailers of cattle from the North-East, which is half of what they were getting before.

He said: ?Apart from the over 250 trailers from the North-East, Lagos now receives cows from other parts of the country and across the border to argument the shortfall.

?Cows are being supplied to Lagos from Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Ghana. It is also sad that most of these cows are from Nigerian herders who were forced to migrate to these countries.?

6 states in South-East, South-South get 60 trucks daily

The chairmen and leaders of cattle dealers associations in Akwa Ibom and Port Harcourt, Alhaji Muhammad Mijinyawa and Malam Muhammad Uba also complained of the decline in cattle supply.

Mijinyawa said that based on records, from January to December 2023, they received 750 trucks of cattle, but added, ?Now, the supply has gone down to 10 trucks per day or even less.?

Uba also said that on the average, 20 trucks of cattle were supplied to Port Harcourt, 15 to Akwa Ibom and 10 each to Warri, Enugu and Abia on a daily basis.

They attributed the problem to unfavourable business conditions in the region on both cattle dealers and breeders.

Why we migrated to Cameroon, East Africa ? Herders

Some of the herders who migrated to other countries told Weekend Trust that they were treated as second-class citizens without rights.

In Machina, Yobe State, a border town with Niger Republic, one of the migrating herdsmen, Abubakar Yolar Margami said, ?I am tending the herd straight to Ngabuji cattle reserve in Niger, where I have freedom.

?It has gotten to the stage where one cannot get meadow for more than 20 cows to graze in Nigeria. All the cattle routes have been taken over by farmers and the government is not doing anything.?

In Cameroon, Muhammad Mahmuda, who migrated with over 1,000 cattle, also said unfavourable government policies forced him to leave the country.

Mahmuda said millions of cattle and other livestock had crossed over to the neighbouring countries.

He said, ?In my family alone, not less than 20 households have migrated to Marwa and other places in Cameroon, while some travelled up to Central Africa.

?I was the one that cleared our family?s herds into Cameroon this season, and I was baffled by the number of cattle I saw crossing the border through the Wurobuke/Bebeni cattle route, paying a huge amount as tax to the Cameroonian authorities.?

Mahmuda noted that Nigeria was losing millions in revenue and other economic gains from the migrating cows, hides and skin, job opportunities and nutrients for both humans and crops.

?I and other migrating families had to pay over N15 million equivalent of the CFA as tax before we were allowed to cross into Cameroon.

?We spent three days at the border watching more than three million cattle crossing into Cameroon. I watched how those Nigerian resources migrated to its neighbour?s territory and the border was closed,? he said.

He explained that apart from the entry permit tax and documentation, they also had to pay an annual rate for cattle tax per herd when they arrived at the meadow to graze, a CFA amount equivalent to N20,000.

?I paid tax for the four herds my family took into the country. I made this year?s payment six months ago to avoid a penalty,? he added.

Mahmuda said it was heart-breaking to see Nigerian businessmen who are into hides and skin trade relying on Cameroon, Sudan and Central Africa for the products.

He said: ?These are hides and skin they are supposed to buy from us in Nigeria. Before things degenerated, 70 per cent of these hides were sourced within Nigeria, but now, they spend a lot of money on transport and entry tax to about four countries to bring them to Nigeria.

?It is also sad that 70 to 80 per cent of the cows you consume in the North or transport to the southern part of Nigeria comes from the migrants, the Nigerian breeders living in neighbouring countries, particularly here (Cameroon) and Chad. And this is caused by bad governance and insecurity in Nigeria.?

On why they chose Cameroon, he said good policies, structure and infrastructure put in place by their government were the major attractions.

?Cameroon was able to separate farmlands from grazing reserves; they are well gazetted. Also, the forest has been divided into territories, with each being controlled by a traditional ruler; so this gives us the leverage to decide on wherever we want our animals to graze,? he said.

He noted that the Cameroonian authorities have a comprehensive database that tracks the movement of every herder within their boundary, making it difficult to commit crime.

?The tax we are paying helps them to monitor our movement and provides us the needed protection by the government,? he added.

He lamented that two major reasons were responsible for their migration?insecurity and rustling.

?As peaceful herders, we felt we no longer had a place in Nigeria because we were losing our wealth to criminals like cattle rustlers and kidnappers.

?Secondly, all our cattle routes and reserves were encroached upon and completely taken over by farmers.

?We were denied access to water points. How can cattle survive without food and water? They used thugs and security operatives to extort and harass us, while the federal government kept making empty promises for decades and failed to recover our gazetted routes and reserves.

?As peaceful herders we decided to move to countries with good systems that can accommodate us, and Cameroon is one of them, then Chad, Sudan and Central Africa. We live peacefully here and the business is thriving,? he noted.

On what the Nigerian government should do to convince them to return, he simply said, ?Justice to both herders and farmers.?

Another herder who migrated to Cameroon from the South-East, Abdullahi Ardo, said they were chased out of the forests in Enugu, where they lived for centuries.

How cattle resource policy sharply divides Nigerians

Attempts to establish policies that would address herders-farmers? crisis and develop livestock production as a critical sector of the Nigerian economy have faced serious setbacks over the years.

One of them was the Rural Grazing Areas (RUGA) programme, which was introduced by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Leaders across the country reduced the conversation to political manoeuvre. The National Livestock Transformation Programme was meant to enable ?willing states? to contribute large areas of land to the federal government for construction of animal husbandry settlements. The programme, which was approved by the National Economic Council (NEC) Committee on Farmers/ Herders crisis and the federal government, was chaired by former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Also, the secretary of the committee was a former governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, who said clearly that it was a voluntary policy for only the interested state.

However, politicians across the divide ignored the word ?voluntarily? and rattled the policy with criticisms, accusing the then president of siding with his kinsmen.

For instance, the Benue State Government rejected the moves to establish RUGA settlement for herders in any part of the state.

The then Governor Samuel Ortom, backed by the State Assembly, said the approach to the initiative was a gross violation of the state?s anti-open grazing law.

He further attacked the ?voluntary programme? as not only a gross violation of the ranching law, but also as an insult to the sensibilities of the entire people of the state.

On Monday, December 30, 2024, Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa State, who received the Minister of Livestock Development, Alhaji Idi Mukhtar Maiha, called for action to save the livestock sector, which he said was critical to nation building.

The governor urged the federal government to remove obstacles hindering the livestock trade, such as roadblocks and extortion of cattle traders on highways.

He commended President Tinubu for creating the ministry and appointing Idi Maiha, describing it as one of the biggest decisions the government has ever made.

Governor Fintiri expressed confidence in the minister?s ability to deliver on his mandate, citing his intellect and capacity to revitalise the sector.

The governor highlighted Adamawa State?s significant contributions to the livestock industry, with 29 million livestock leaving Mubi for Lagos and generating Lagos N29 billion from the Mubi market alone.

He emphasised the state?s commitment to developing the agriculture sector, leveraging livestock and accessing loans from capital markets.

Governor Fintiri also revealed plans to build modern abattoirs and cattle hubs in the state, in collaboration with investors.

He praised the minister?s initiative to introduce technology to track cattle rustling, a move that will help address security challenges in the country.

Earlier, Maiha acknowledged Adamawa State?s rich animal resources and thanked the governor for the warm reception.

He commended the governor?s foresight in building a northern international cattle market in Mubi and praised the state?s urban infrastructure.

Maiha emphasised federal government?s commitment to leveraging the livestock sector?s potential for the country?s benefit, highlighting the country?s 415 grazing reserves, with Adamawa State boasting over 33 reserves.

Borno launches RUGA

Meanwhile, the Minister of Livestock development, Alhaji Idi Mukhtar Maiha, Co-chair of Presidential Committee on Implementing Livestock Reforms, Prof Attahiru Jega among other dignitaries are in Maiduguri today for the launch of the Ngarannam livestock improvement and Ranch settlement to boost agricultural and economic potential of Borno state.

Weekend Trust recalls that governor Zulum recently established the ministry of livestock and fishery development.

Southern states reject initiative

Most states in the southern part of the country also rejected the implementation of the RUGA policy.

At that time, governors of the 17 southern states also announced the ban of open grazing in the region.

In Bayelsa, the former governor, Douye Diri, signed into law a bill prohibiting open grazing of livestock, making it a criminal offence.

The then Commissioner for Information in Abia State, Chief John Okiyi Kalu said, ?There is no RUGA settlement anywhere in the state.

?We do not have any RUGA settlement in Abia State and we do not intend to have it. What we have are cattle markets, such as the ones at Lokpanta and Waterside in Aba.??

He added that the state did not even have enough land for agriculture and other uses, not to talk of ceding any part of the state for cattle colony or RUGA settlement.

At the height of the debate, the Commissioner for Information and Value Orientation in Ekiti State, Akin Omole said, ?We don?t want to go into the politics of RUGA, which in public definition and meaning is ceding ancestral land to those who are not indigenes of Ekiti. We will not be a part of it. What we are promoting is livestock farming, having banned open grazing of cattle in Ekiti.?

Challenges of implementation in northern states

The federal government had in July 2019 announced the suspension of the RUGA settlement programme, saying it was not consistent with the approved National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP).

Umahi, the then governor of Ebonyi State, disclosed this at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday.

?The NEC committee on farmers/ herders crisis under the chairmanship of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo met today to deliberate on the approved programme of the National Economic Council (NEC) and the federal government, tagged, ?The National Livestock Transformation Programme.

?We are aware that today, Mr President has suspended the implementation of the RUGA programme, initiated and being implemented by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources because it is not consistent with the NEC and federal government-approved National Livestock Transformation Plan, which has programmes for the rehabilitation of internally displaced persons, resulting from the crisis and development of ranches in any willing state of the federation,? he had said.

Investigation by our correspondents revealed that the programme is also suffering in some northern states since the time the federal government suspended it.

?Livestock ministry will resolve the problem?

Months ago, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu created the Ministry of Livestock Development following recommendations of the National Livestock Reforms Committee, which he did.

In an interview with Weekend Trust, the secretary to the Presidential Implementation Panel of the new Livestock Development Ministry, Professor Mohammed Kuta Yahaya, said the establishment of the ministry would avail Nigeria the opportunity to uncover and utilise her full potential in the livestock sector.

Kuta recalled that the committee report they submitted to President Tinubu on September 14, 2024, convinced him that Nigeria had gotten a solution at hand, which was what Nigerians have been waiting for.

?He (president) promised that as the committee recommended that Nigeria should have a Ministry of Livestock Resources as other West African countries like Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, it shall be implemented.

?Those countries have huge potentials for livestock. They are maximising their potentials in the West African region and Africa. You can see that countries like Kenya, Botswana, South Africa and Senegal are doing extremely well. In Nigeria, despite its huge potential, massive land and highest concentration of animals in the entire Africa, production is very low.

?So, with the huge potential, we needed to think about the productivity and other quality products to compare to the rest of the countries in Africa in terms of yield,? he said.

Reacting, a livestock expert and former Commissioner for Livestock and Fisheries Development in Sokoto State, Professor Abdulkadir Usman Junaidu, said the sector is facing many challenges that needed urgent government?s attention, saying the country?s livestock resources faced existential threats.

He said, ?Certainly, there is a decline in the population of our animals. This may be due to several factors, including climate change, cattle rustling, banditry and kidnapping, leading to displacement of both the animals and their owners, harsh economic conditions in the country, farmers/herders conflicts, leading to limited grazing areas and killing of the animals and movement to other parts of the world. Others include lack of commitment and political will on the part of the government to address the challenges of livestock resources in the country at all levels.

?If you look back at the previous budgets and compare the allocation to the livestock subsector as against crop and other sectors, you will certainly know that we are not serious,? Prof Junaidu said.

He said the creation of the Ministry of Livestock Resources Development ?is a step in the right direction as this will ensure that the livestock subsector is set to claim its deserved position in the scheme of socioeconomic development of the country, but that can only be achieved if we have a holistic strategic plan, including putting the right pegs in the right holes to surmount the challenges facing the sector.?

He listed some of the measures the government should take to improve livestock productivity to include ?providing more feed through creation of more grazing reserves and rehabilitation of the existing ones with all the required and necessary facilities, veterinary care, good animal husbandry, improved security, as well as genetic improvement of local breeds. Adequate funding with proper monitoring and evaluation is very critical to the success of any of these programmes.? (Daily Trust)

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