By Fatima Muhammad —
A Fulani Non-Governmental Organisation, Fulbe Global Development & Rights Initiative, FGDRI, has commended President Bola Tinubu for establishing the Ministry of Livestock Development.
The NGO, in a statement signed on Friday by its President, Salem Musa-Umar, commended the Federal Government for breaking the age-long jinx in the quest to establish a full-fledged ministry for livestock development in the country.
The Fulani group said its community were excited by the landmark development, which sought to “permanently tackle the intractable challenges hampering national prosperity in the livestock value chain”.
It noted that Mr Tinubu’s courage in finally creating the ministry was commensurate to the bold step taken by late President Umaru Yar’Adua when he established the Ministry for Niger Detta Development in 2008 to tackle another lingering development challenge faced by oil producing communes for decades.
“No doubt the vision of President Yar’Adua in resolving the development challenge of the Niger Delta through a full-fledged ministry was the right step needed at that time, which required a visionary leader like him to face headlong,” it said.
The Fulbe group also noted that it took another equally visionary leader like Mr Tinubu to “painstakingly study, carefully understand, cautiously legislate and permanently resolve the livestock challenge with similar characteristic capacity and competence”.
“It is in this same vein that we recognise how President Tinubu demonstrated uncommon courage to break a longstanding jinx by establishing the Livestock Ministry, which has the potential to resolve another lingering development challenge, bedeviling farmers and herders for generations.
“This Challenge has also retarded the achievement of the necessary growth and modernization of the livestock sector in line with global best practices and standards,” it said.
The Fulbe group said establishing the ministry is a fundamental step towards addressing the myriads of challenges facing the livestock sector, which would add values to the overall economic fortunes of Nigeria.
