From Sola Ojo, Abuja
The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has hailed the establishment of the Ministry of Livestock Development, describing it as long overdue.
President of the organisation, Yerima Shettima, said the ministry would solve the age-long clashes between the crop growers and cattle rearers in the country,especially in the North.
He dismissed the argument that it would swell the Federal Government’s expenditure.
“For me, it is a welcome development and I want to commend the Federal Government for having the courage to do that for us because, over time, some of us have been advocating for the centralisation of the Ministry of Agriculture.
“This development shows that President Bola Tinubu is out to solve the security problem because what is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
“Like I said, one of the ways to solve the herder/farmer issue is to stop moving these animals from one place to another. So, if the government can implement it well, it will help us a lot and we must give the government the needed support to make it work.
“When we talk about the new ministry increasing the government’s expenditure, we also need to possibly look inward to see which of the ministries we need to scrap. This is very key.
“It is now left for those who will be saddled with the responsibility to do the needful. Everything that has been said about that should be addressed.
“Let us try it and see whether it will solve the problem or not because farmer/herder clashes have been a threat to our national security,” he added.