President of MACBAN says the association has brokered peace across borders, rejecting calls to label the group a terrorist organisation.

The president of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Baba Ngelzarma, has rejected growing calls for the group to be designated a terrorist organisation, insisting the association has a long and verifiable record of peacebuilding both within Nigeria and across Africa.

Speaking during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday, Ngelzarma argued that critics calling for the designation misunderstand MACBAN’s role and overlook its extensive engagement with international peace and conflict-resolution bodies.

“MACBAN cannot be a criminal group. Whoever is trying to designate MACBAN as a criminal group does not understand anything about MACBAN,” Ngelzarma said. “MACBAN has been engaging with USAID for years. MACBAN has been engaging with organisations like Search for Common Ground, Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, Interface Mediation Center. We have been engaging with these international IPs for years on how to mitigate conflict between farmers, on how to modernise the lives of protection systems. ”

According to him, the association has not only participated in peace initiatives but has also led conflict-resolution missions in several African countries.

“MACBAN leadership boosted so many countries, Ethiopia, AU, attending conflicts of mitigation on how to mitigate conflicts, on how to modernise the lives of protection systems. We have interfaced with so many organisations within and outside the country,” he explained.

Within Nigeria, Ngelzarma noted that the association has an established history of collaboration with government agencies. “Go to the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution in Nigeria. You have a lot of documents presented by MACBAN on how to mitigate conflict between the farmers and the herders,” he said.

The MACBAN president further stressed that the association itself has suffered significant losses to banditry and criminal violence — a critical detail, he said, that contradicts attempts to brand the organisation as complicit.

“We have been engaging with the security agencies. We lost about eight of our state chairmen as a result of bandits’ attacks, Ngelzarma revealed.

“Just this year alone, we lost a chairman in Kwara, in Ilorin. He was followed to his house and killed by bandits, whom we believe are some of the fulani criminals. We lost a chairman in Katsina. His wife and daughter were taken away by the bandits.”

He insisted that these losses underscore the association’s vulnerability and its vested interest in restoring peace, rather than fuelling insecurity. (ARISE NEWS)