The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, has rejected a bill seeking to establish a national agency for the regulation and management of ranches in Nigeria.
Recall that a Bill currently at the National Assembly seeking an act to ban open grazing and establish ranches across the country.
The Bill has since scaled second reading at the Senate but not without a heated debate.
Speaking on the Bill shortly after the inauguration of the Yobe State Executive Council of the association in Damaturu at the weekend, MACBAN president, Baba Usman-Ngelzarma, said pastoralists were, instead, looking for the creation of a full-blown Federal Ministry for Livestock and Fisheries.
According to him, with the creation of the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, ‘‘the entire livestock value chain issues can be addressed holistically”.
He said: ‘‘Ranching is just an aspect of livestock instead of going for ranching why can’t the president create a pool-blown ministry for livestock so that all the value chain related to livestock issues can be addressed holistically by that ministry?
‘Issues of production, processing, marketing, transportation even security related issues can be addressed if there is a ministry dedicated for that purpose.’’
Mr Ngelzarma, therefore, called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to implement the recommendations of the Livestock Reforms and Mitigation Committee headed by a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, set up to seek a lasting solution to the perennial farmers-herders conflict in rural areas.
‘We submitted the Jega’s report on Livestock Reform and Mitigation sometime last year, we are looking forward for the President to establish the implementation committee so that implementation of that report starts in ernest,” he said.
“Major requirement of that report is the creation of Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries so that livestock-related issues can be given due attention.”
