The Fulani socio-cultural group, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, has rejected a bill to establish a national agency for the regulation and management of ranches in Nigeria.
Baba Usman Ngelzarma, MACBAN’s national president, revealed the association’s opposition to the bill when he spoke to journalists in Damaturu, Yobe State over the weekend, just after the association’s state executive council was inaugurated.
Speaking for Miyetti Allah, Ngelzarma proposed establishing a Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development instead.
Chronicle NG reports that a bill to prohibit open grazing and establish ranches as a solution to Nigeria’s persistent disputes between sedentary farmers and nomadic herders passed a second reading following a heated debate in the Nigeria Senate.
“The entire livestock value chain issues can be addressed holistically rather than what is going on now at the National Assembly, working to create a bill for animal husbandry or ranching,” he said.
The Miyetti Allah leader suggested that issues that border production, processing, marketing, transportation, and security may be solved if there is a full-fledged ministry committed to the task.
He urged President Bola Tinubu to put into action the recommendations of the Livestock Reforms and Mitigation Committee, which was chaired by Professor Attahiru Jega, a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and was formed to find a long-term solution to the perennial farmers-herders conflict in rural areas.
“We submitted Jega’s report on livestock reform and mitigation sometime last year. We are looking forward to President Tinubu establishing the implementation committee so that implementation of that report starts in earnest,” he said.
Miyetti Allah is a loosely organised political advocacy group dedicated to improving the lives of Fulani pastoralists in Nigeria.
