…Following Tinubu’s pledge to build ranch in Benue

• Govt should educate us on proposed ranch  model –MACBAN president

• Demands security, protection of ranches against bandits

• Communities vow to resist takeover of ancestral lands

 

 

By Uchenna Inya (Abakaliki), Noah Ebije (Kaduna), Scholastica Hir (Makurdi), Olanrewaju Lawal (Birnin) and George Onyejiuwa (Owerri)

 

In the wake of the killings in Benue State, Plateau and other parts of the country attributed to herdsmen and bandits, the seeming revival of talks about ranching of cattle and all the issues associated with it has rekindled apprehension among people in communities that may be impacted by the proposed initiative.

The fears of the people, particularly in the North-central and Southern part of the country is the belief, which is now concretising, that the horrendous attacks are the manifestation of a Fulani agenda to wipe out the indigenous communities and take over the lands.

At the other end of the issue, members of MiyettI Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, and the leadership are contending that both the federal and state governments have not been able to properly explain the concept ranching envisaged and how they would operate. 

Below, Sunday Sun presents situation reports from the various states on the thorny issue.  

 

 

 

EBONYI

Some communities in Ebonyi State have vowed to resist the use of their ancestral lands to establish ranches, insisting that the rearing of cattle is alien to them, saying that the practice constitutes an existential threat to their existence, maintaining that it is a cloak and ploy being deployed by the Fulani to wipe them out.

The communities stated this against the plan by some state governments in the country to establish ranches for cattle to curb herders/farmers clashes in some parts of the country, which have claimed many lives.

Speaking to Sunday Sun, Chijioke Nwibo, a youth leader in charge of security in Ozibo Ibenta, Echi-aba Development Centre, Ebonyi Local Government Area of the state, said that the community had issues with herdsmen some few years ago, which led to loss of lives and destruction of property. He said that establishing a ranch in the community would bring back herders back to the community which the people would not like.

“We have chased herdsmen out of our community because of their activities. They were killing our people and destroying our crops and we had to take the bull by the horns and chased them out of our place.

“We will not like anything that will bring them back to our community, we will resist any plan to establish ranches for cattle, we will resist it”, he vowed.

Echoing Nwibo’s position, the Youth President of Egeburu, Afikpo Local Government Area of the state, Eze Egwu, also said that the community would resist ranching in their area. 

He said that the community has no land for farming, let alone ranching.

“We don’t want any ranch in our place. We don’t want cattle. Since six years now, we have not had any problem over destruction of our crops.

“We chased herdsmen out of our community because of their atrocities and we banned anything cow meat in the entire Afikpo.

“So, ranching is not acceptable to us because these people we have chased away will start coming into our community again,” he said 

Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, Jude Okpor, when contacted for comments said he had no knowledge of any plan to establish ranches in the state by the government.

“I can’t respond to anything I don’t have a clip on, I will get back to you,” he said.

Efforts to speak with the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Nkechinyere Iyioku, could not yield results as she refused to pick her calls.

 

KADUNA

Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has said that it never opposed the establishment of ranching across the country, but the model and wrong application of ranching law.

The National President of MACBAN, Baba Othman Ngelzarma, told Sunday Sun that it was the model that was not clearly defined as well as forceful application of the ranching law that aggravated conflicts between herders and farmers, especially in Benue State.

“First of all, you have to know clearly that MACBAN is not against ranching. We never opposed ranching. But it all depends on what model of ranching. This has been our position. You also have to know that we are part of the committee that worked and put up the document for the National Livestock Transformation Plan.

“We took part in that committee that perfected that plan. We also have membership in the reform committee headed by Prof. Attahiru Jega, who perfected the document and gave to Mr. President which gave rise to the creation of the Ministry of the Livestock that we have today.

“So, we are never opposed to settlement of the cattle for ranching considering most especially the increase in the population and the population will continue to increase both on the side of the animals and on the side of human beings against the land that doesn’t increase. So, this is a call for effective planning for the occupation of herding and farming to coexist peacefully.

“This free movement looking for free fodder is about to be finished even in the far North where the pastoralists considered it to be their homes because of the growing population. And not only that, the effects of climate change in the environment. Desertification is encroaching most parts of the Northern states, all the grazing land allocated for ranching are affected by one form of climate change or the other.

“These things put together call for effective planning for pastoralists and farmers to coexist peacefully. So, the only option left for us is to try to settle these pastoralists in order to stop the movement from one area to another area to avoid these recurring problems.

“But I want you to know that it is the wrong application of ranching concept that aggravated the conflicts in Benue because the ranching concept in Benue was wrongly adopted and we are now at the receiving end of the law that was promulgated by the former governor of the State, Samuel Ortom. We are still at the receiving end of that law.

“The pastoralists and the farmers have suffered. Most of the pastoralists have left Benue State because they have lost all they have as a result of the law. The law for open grazing was wrongly applied. Government officials did not sit down to articulate how very well the ranching law should be applied. Everything was done in a rush. The title of the law says, ‘Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranch Establishment Law.’ This goes to show you that two things are involved in that law. Open grazing and ranch establishment.

“And even before the law was enacted, open grazing law was enforced without making adequate arrangement for the pastoralists but stopped them from open grazing. Up till now there is no established ranch in Benue. The application was done in a wrong way that was why it brought about conflicts which resulted in loss of lives on the side of farmers and the pastoralists. A lot of property were lost as a result of the law. Any law that does not bring harmony is not a law. So that is what we experienced in Benue.

“We never opposed ranching as I said earlier but it all depends on what model of ranching, because if you are coming up with a model of ranching, you have to consider the peculiarity of the pastoralists we have in this country, because we pastoralists believe that the only option they have is open grazing. We need to come up with a model of ranch that suits the environment that we have. The pastoralists don’t know anything than to go about with their cows and feed them.

“We need to provide for them the model of settlement that suits their environment. The more cows they have the more they feel important in the society. Their desire is to have so many cows so that their children can inherit many cows the way they inherited from their own fathers. Government should establish ranch for the pastoralists where they can have enough grass and water to feed the cattle so that they don’t need to go out before feeding the cattle.

“But if you expect individuals to establish ranch, it will not work. We stand for establishment of ranch so that the pastoralists can contribute more to the development of the country,” MACBAN President said.

BENUE

Reiterating the position of the national leadership of MACBAN on ranching, the Secretary of the Benue State branch of MACBAN, Ibrahim Galma, said that the government needs to dialogue and sensitize both farmers and herders to enable them understand the concept of ranching. 

Speaking with Sunday Sun in Makurdi, Galma said the farmers had refused to give them land even when they asked why the government had refused to mediate.

Noting that ranching is a good thing, he said: “We are in a modern generation now and the traditional way of keeping cattle, even with our forefathers is no longer sustainable because of the challenges of urbanization, desertification, insecurity and a lot of factors.

“In fact, cattle need to be in one place. So in that position, MACBAN, we are not against ranching in all ramifications but there are issues and we need to ask the government some questions as the implementer of the law.

“But in all, ranching is a good thing because we need stable and safe communities where farmers and herders can live together, our children will go to school and people will go about their business with peace of mind and in safety.”

Galma explained that during the immediate past administration of Chief Samuel Ortom, MACBAN had series of meetings with the state government, which stated it has no right to use public funds for cattle rearing as it considered cattle rearing a private business. 

He lamented that the herders were left alone to find land anywhere they could be given by the citizens and then follow due process to get it.

“But there’s lack of trust and good relationship between the herding communities and the Benue farmers due to these lingering problems. There is a lot of accusations ranging from we don’t own land and many others.

“The indigenes said we are strangers, and we should leave. The farmers are not ready to lease land to us.”

He noted that the government was not showing interest in resolving the matter, saying “government is not ready to mediate or carry out sensitization and carry us closer to see how these ranches are going to be.”

He expressed sadness that the relationship between the farmers and herders deteriorated because of due to land acquisition, social media propaganda and political propaganda. “All these have ruined relationship between the herders and farmers. Not one single state governor in Nigeria has established one model ranch. Open grazing was banned in the state but there was no preparation for ranching, herders were left to their fate. That is a contradicting ideology,” he said.

He said consultation, dialogue and sensitization are vital to solving the issues and urged the government to ensure that it is committed to solving the problems and not focused on politics.

“In all ramifications, government is the owner of the land. There is no land that is owned by the traditional council, all the natural resources are bestowed or owned by state government and likewise the Federal Government. So they must establish dialogue and mediation and most especially let’s build trust.

“We have the money but the technicalities and telling us we are not indigenes and that nobody would give us land to occupy their place, is one of the challenges. The government should be a leading figure to sensitize the people across the state.

“Cattle-rearing is a business that can contribute to the development of any community. So if that perspective is changed to the fact that cattle-rearing is a business and the Fulani man is a citizen of Nigeria and has the right, constitutionally, to live anywhere, hence he obeys the law, it would help.

“We are all good neighbours but we created vacuum of understanding and conflict, deliberately and politically and it’s consuming us. When you look at Benue, the conflict is consuming the state. This is not what we need.

“Our business cannot function without peace and in this state we have been living with the farmers for quite long. So there is need to stop politicizing the issues. The state government has to lead the dialogue, sensitization and advocacies to enable us get things right. We would achieve the ranching when we understand ourselves.

“This land was made by God and we are surviving on it, we should know how to share the land and how to use it, if not it will become a battleground for us. We would fight, our children will fight, and our grandchildren will fight and our great grandchildren will continue killing themselves and that is not the best way to live in Nigeria.

“Ranching is capital intensive and if up till now the government does not have a single model ranch in the state, how would an ordinary Fulani man who believes in open grazing do ranching?

“Not even the state or federal government has thought of having a model ranch the way they are building hospitals and constructing road projects. They should do the same in the ranching sector so as to solve the problems. Nigeria has the resources but they are politicizing everything and that is why we are consumed by conflicts. It is very unfortunate,” Galma said.

Responding, the Director General (DG) of the brand new Bureau of Livestock Development and Transboundary Animal Diseases Control, Dr Aondoakaa Asambe, lamented the insincerity on the side of the herders and disunity among the Benue people.

He said when he was appointed he knew there was an existing law on prohibition of open grazing and establishment of ranches. 

Asambe explained that on assumption of office, he discovered the state government had ranches over the years that were abandoned and now moribund.

He said he initiated a memo to the Minister of Livestock Development because not much was budgeted in regards to livestock development in the state.

His words: “In the memo to the Minister of Livestock Development I profiled some of these ranches that the state government had established over 40 years ago.

“When the minister came to Benue we made a tour of all these facilities, looked at them and assessed them to know the extent to which the Federal Government could intervene to help the state resuscitate these ranches.

“As it is now, the majority of our people don’t even know what a ranch looks like. So resuscitating those ranches will go a long to give people policy direction on the way to go.

“When we visited these ranches and came back, the reports that went out were quite against what actually happened. I took over one month again visiting the radio stations to explain to people the real reason that we were out to do.

“There is issue of distrust. People don’t trust the government any longer on this issue, so it is a very difficult thing for us to do.”

He, however, assured that the state government is going back to the discussion table to talk to the people on how they can embrace ranching as the only way out of the problem currently facing the state.

“If truly the issues we are having are occasioned by the incursion of cattle into people’s farms, if truly that is the issue, the establishment of ranches will be the best. The government is determined to do that.”

Asambe who regretted that the state is highly divided along party lines, stated that there are people, players within the state who are inciting the locals not to accept anything about ranches.

He also noted that the people who are grazing in the state are not showing signs of conforming to the law, saying, “you must not have an elaborate ranch for you to control the movement of your animals. You can restrain your animals even in a small place, then go out and cut grasses and feed them.

“So for them giving that excuse, it means they are not even committed to this. So the government is having difficulty on both sides. People who own this animal are not really ready to go into ranching, they only say it for the cameras and we still have people here who are opposed to this government and are even inciting the locals against the government.

“So it is a very difficult terrain to venture. But we are trying to talk to the people to convince them, that even if they are not giving land for ranching, they should also do their own ranches and venture into livestock business because it is not an exclusive preserve of a particular ethnic group,” Asambe said.

While positing that a ranch doesn’t have to be bogus, Asambe said if the herders really want to embrace peace, they can start by exhibiting the character that they are not ready to move on people’s farms again by restraining the animals and keeping them in one place and feeding them there with grasses.

 

KEBBI

Against the background of continued attacks of cattle herds in northern parts of the country by murderous groups of armed bandits and foreign terrorists, Secretary of the Kebbi State MACBAN, Mallam Abu Lamido, who spoke with Sunday Sun on telephone, said the Fulani would not like a situation where cows would be assembled in a single place, and Lakurawa or other bandits would storm the place in a day and rustle the cows.

Explaining the position of his group, he said: “We are not against ranching, but our fear is that we don’t want what happened in Borno State where bandits took away cows at a ranch to happen. That is why I said government must provide heavy security at the ranch. Again, the facilities provided at the ranch must be maintained by the government because if the ranch is left uncared for Fulani would leave the place. You know we have many Fulani inside the bush who are used to traditional way of rearing cows. So, there is need to educate them properly so that they can accept ranching. If these things are done, our people would embrace ranching.”

Lamido disclosed that on Wednesday at Augie Local Government Area, Kebbi State, Lakurawa rustled about 300 cattle, while security couldn’t do anything.

“At the end of the day, if there is no security and maintenance of the facilities, Fulani would not allow their cows to be assembled in a single place,” he said.

However, the present administration in Kebbi State has been working and strategising on how to stop the roaming of the cattle outside the state. 

The government has made efforts to partner with local, national and international agro-allied agencies and experts, including Indonesian and Brazilian governments on how to improve breeding of high-yielded cows in the state.

Kebbi State is among the states in the northern parts of the country with high population of cattle, which if properly ranched could improve the GDP of Nigeria with high production of diary milk and beef production.

The state government is already preparing cows for experimental cross-breeding under an arrangement with Indonesia with the cooperation of members of MACBAN as well as livestock’s farmers. Since last year, some MACBAN members have donated their special cattle for cross breeding.

The Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Usra Hendra Harahap, visited the Kebbi State governor, Dr. Nasir in Birnin Kebbi, where they discussed bilateral assistance to Nigeria to achieve 60 and 40 per cent increase in its milk and meat production respectively in the next five years.

The ambassador was accompanied by a team of experts from Indonesia towards a fruitful and successful discussion.

While speaking during the visit, Usra Hendra Harahap said: “This visit aims to boost the earlier collaboration between the Kebbi and Indonesian governments on artificial insemination and embryo transfer.

“This collaboration seeks to establish state-of-the-art breeding facilities, development fund, milk and meat processing unit, implement sustainable pasture system and significantly improve milk and meat production by 60 per cent and 40 per cent respectively within five years.”

The ambassador expressed the readiness of his country to assist Nigeria achieve self-sufficiency in animal production and agriculture in general, adding that it would enhance livestock productivity and genetic improvement significantly benefiting the agricultural sector in Kebbi.

He said: “The technical cooperation on artificial insemination and embryo transfer reflect our self-commitment to impacting on agriculture productivity and capacity building.

“Our premier objective is to achieve self-sufficiency in meat and milk production and processing. We are also increasing technical capacity in assisting with reproductive technologies for the benefit of all African subregion.”

While assuring that both nations stood to gain from the partnership, the ambassador prayed that the collaboration would be taken to the highest level for the benefit of all.

Harahap said Indonesia was ready to establish a centre in Kebbi under the Federal Ministry of Animal Health and Fishery.

According to him, the artificial insemination centre will play a vital role in fostering technical operation for artificial insemination and embryo transfer in Kebbi.

He said as a public service agency, the centre would focus on the production, marketing, testing and monitoring of livestock, covering semen quality, while strengthening artificial insemination method.

He assured that Indonesia had been practicing the method successfully for over 28 years, praying that the partnership would not only enhance the genetic quality of livestock in Kebbi but would also serve as a catalyst for sustainable agricultural growth and economic development of the collaborating nations.

In his reaction, Kebbi State Governor, Dr Nasir Idris, represented by the Deputy Governor, Senator Umar Abubakar, appreciated the Ambassador for the visit as well as the magnanimity of the Indonesian government to sponsor two Kebbi veterinary doctors to Indonesia for a training on artificial insemination.

 “We are glad you sponsored their trip and training in Indonesia. We are also pleased that the team of experts that trained them followed up to see how those trained were able to cascade the training. We appreciate you very well for this very quick trip.”

IMO

Back in 2020, Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma did not join other southern governors to enact an anti-open grazing law. Rather, he said that an existing legislation, Imo State Law No 9 of 2006 passed by the then state Assembly and signed into law by the then state governor, Chief Achike Udenwa, on January 19, 2007 called for the prohibition of grazing of cattle in restricted areas including the state capital, and cultivated lands within the state. But, the herdsmen could graze their cattle in the forest. But this state law has been practically ignored while the current administration had shown no interest in enforcing the law. As a result of this, there have been incessant and deadly clashes in the state between Fulani herdsmen and farmers with fatalities .

The only private ranch in the state is one established by the former Imo Labour Party governorship candidate in 2023, Senator Athan Nneji Achonu at his country home at Umunomo in Ehime Mbano Council Area. 

He has the largest herd of the local specie (Ehie Igbo) in the South East.

However, other private investors in the livestock business are yet to commence operations even though some of them have acquired large tracts of land for the business.

Meanwhile, it is now a common sight in the Owerri, the state capital, to see hundreds of cattle with Fulani herdsmen moving on major roads causing traffic jam. 

The situation is even worse at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, where herdsmen have turned the fields of the university into a grazing ground. 

A FUTO staff who spoke on condition of anonymity told Sunday Sun that the herdsmen have turned the institution into a grazing ground.

She said: “The university is now a grazing land for the Fulani herdsmen and the university management has turned a blind eye to it. You will see cows and the herdsmen roaming the entire school area grazing on the fields and even at the cultivated area without being challenged or cautioned by management.  It is very appalling for an elite university like FUTO to become a cow zone when it is not a University of Agriculture.”