The National Secretary of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Alhaji Buba Othman Ngelzarma, has said that his members are tired of moving cattle around the country, stressing that MACBAN’s major interest now, is to get herders to abandon their archaic system of cattle rearing.
He, however, blamed the current migration of herders to the southern parts of the country on the negligence of over 400 grazing reserves and dams in the northern part of the country by northern governors.
Specifically, he said the grazing reserves in the north had all collapsed, revealing that the situation was further worsened by the collapse of dams built in those grazing reserves to provide drinking water and to water the pastures. Ngelzarma, who disclosed these in an exclusive interview with
New National Star in Abuja, also said the Federal Government was not doing enough for animal husbandry in the country as was being done for farmers.
“It is evident that we have young Fulani herders who are not educated that are still practising an outdated system of animal husbandry. We are trying to modernize it; trying to tell them the benefits of keeping cows in one place, that that cow can give you more meat than moving them from place to place.
The long- term solution is settlement; get them settled. “While you are trying to get them settled, from now to the time when they can be settled, then we can look at what can we do to solve the security problem that is facing everybody in this country? What can we do about cattle rustling, kidnapping, and banditry? According to him, MACBAN’s major interest is how to get the young herders to abandon their archaic system of cow rearing for a modernized one where they can be permanently settled, have access to education, and are able to learn other skills apart from herding.
“I know of one grazing reserve that has about 18 dams in it, but none of the dams are working today. They are all silted with sand. If the state governments of the north can revisit these grazing reserves, propagate pasture, de-silt the dams, and construct new dams, the pastoralists will not go anywhere. “Even, the pastoralists in the south will come back to the north. What took them to the south is the search for water and grass for their animals.
If the north can come up with modern meat processing factories that can be established in the northern part of the country, we can stop taking live cows to the south. “At least, the time has come now for the pastoralists to get settled in a place considering the population growth of both human beings and animals against the land that doesn’t increase. This population explosion is causing so much demand on the limited land, so there is the need for both farmers and pastoralists to coexist peacefully. “I know the era of this free movement is about to be over even in the northern part of the country where the pastoralists belong.
In the near future, it will be very difficult to move cattle from one local government to the other. Because of the growing population, people need farmlands and even the pastoralists are also farmers. Ngelzarma accused the media and some politicians of playing politics with the farmer-herder clashes in parts of the country, alleging that all Fulani herdsmen were being profiled and tagged as criminals. He said that the profiling of the Fulani herdsmen was a deliberate act to present the Fulani negatively for political and tribal purposes and to get them exterminated because according to him, not every Fulani herder is criminally inclined. “It is deliberate.
Have you ever heard of a Yoruba or Igbo armed robber or kidnapper? A kidnapper is a kidnapper no matter where he comes from; a criminal is a criminal,” he observed. Ngelzarma, pointed accusing fingers at some media houses that he said were at the forefront of the profiling of Fulani herdsmen, adding that they were equally supported by the political enemies of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The MACBAN national secretary asserted that herdsmen, because of the pastoralist nature of looking for greener pastures for their animals in most cases fell victims to kidnappers, cattle rustlers, and bandits, especially in the North-West geopolitical zone of the country. He added that “some of Buhari’s enemies because he is a Fulani man have sworn that the country will become a battleground for him.
We are always told the tales of a Fulani kidnapper, while you never hear of a Yoruba armed robber. The Fulanis are affected by these vices too. “We have lost about three million cows as a result of cattle rustling. Who are the owners of cows in this country? Fulanis. Today, we are sandwiched between two great evils; here(the North), we are typical victims of these vices, and over there (the South), we are the cause because of the negative coverage of some of the media houses.
You know that it is not fair to just say since you catch a criminal, he is a Fulani herdsman. “If you catch an armed robber, if he speaks Yoruba, does that make him a Yoruba man? So, because a criminal speaks Fulfulde, every Fulani herdsman is now being classified as a criminal? We have criminals in every ethnic group and everywhere. “Let the media begin to report positively with the aim of solving this problem. But, some of the media houses are deliberately profiling the Fulani, maybe for their political purposes.
I “Five days ago, one southerner was arrested with 130 cows belonging to a Fulani man in Niger State. Everywhere has a security problem and it is a fact that when you catch a gang of kidnappers, Fulanis are among them. We have criminals in all spheres. “If the media can do justice for us: if a criminal is caught, you don’t have to add Fulani? By portraying every Fulani man in Nigeria as a criminal today, because that is what they portray; it is wrong. How can somebody even think as an association we support criminality?”
“So because of the enormous demand on the land, there has to be a settlement model by the state governments that can begin to settle the pastoralists in one place for them to get proper benefit of their business; for them to get the opportunity of their children to be educated, for them to have the opportunity of learning other skills apart from cattle rearing,” he added.
The MACBAN helmsman further accused successive administrations in the country of paying little attention to animal husbandry in the country in terms of policies. While government at all levels enacts policies and programmes to promote various sectors of the agricultural chain, he complained that little or no attention was paid to pastoralists in terms of financing, and loans, and other benefits that could help them grow their business and ultimately, generate revenue for the national economy as obtained in other countries.
He, however, admitted that undocumented pastoralists moved their animals from other West African countries in search of pastures in Nigeria because of the porous nature of the nation’s numerous land borders.
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