Nigerians reject PMB’s Cattle Routes, seek Ranching to tame farmers/herders’ clashes
President Muhammadu Buhari may have introduced fresh confusion to the intractable Fulani herdsmen killings and clashes with farmers following his latest position on the matter which is creation of Cattle Routes across Nigeria.
Already, several Nigerians have rejected Cattle Routes, saying the best bet for ending the clashes remains ranching and not cattle routes as the later will continue to cause friction that will always lead to killings.
According to them, nomadic cattle management is no more in vogue but ranching where live stocks are kept and taken care of.
Answering questions at a televised Presidential Town Hall Interactive Programme, anchored by Mrs. Kadaria Ahmed, in Abuja on Wednesday night, the president said resolving the crisis would gulf be through the cooperation of the governors, with the federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, “So that we can create these routes…Benue has banned (open) grazing. I expect a government to insist on the cattle routes and grazing areas to be re-established…”
However, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo interjected and claimed that state governors are the chief drivers of the grazing routes and creation of ranches, through provision of land since the “Federal government has no land. Only state governments have laid. The federal government cannot determine what will happen in the states. The National Economic Council has set up a committee, Livestock Transformation Plan, and many of them have given land. The plan is that the states will provide land and private individuals will pay for ranching and veterinary services; if they want. It’s an interim phase. There is also the Green Wall Project, where Nigeria is cooperating with our northern neighbours in North Africa and our neighbours in West Africa, in Niger, etc. We need to recharge Lake Chad as it has shrunk from 35, 000 to 1, 300 square metres.
“There will be a mixture of grazing routes, ranches. Governors will provide space for ranches and, in the interim; they will build earth dams so that those who need the services can access these earth dams and veterinary clinics.
“It’s a gradual process and it’s that gradual process that we will adopt.”
He added further that some “very important personalities encroached on the grazing routes,” thus, forcing herders to chart new pathways for their cattle, and, in the process, clashed with farmers.
According to Buhari on why his idea of Cattle Ranching is good, “They said desertification, shrinking of Lake Chad, as well climate change, exacerbated migration of herders who then encroach on farms, which culminates in crisis.
“It started from Benue (State) and the Federal Government foresaw it and I asked the minister to go to the archives and find out the cattle routes and grazing areas in the First Republic, but, subsequently, very important personalities encroached on the grazing routes…The movement (of cattle) is from the North to the South and (the crisis) is quite predictable.”
