Miyetti Allah rejects bill banning open grazing

Maureen Aguta

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has rejected a bill that seeks to establish a national agency for the regulation and management.

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has rejected a bill that seeks to establish a national agency for the regulation and management of ranches in Nigeria.

Alhaji Baba Usman Ngelzarma, MACBAN president, announced his opposition to the bill at the weekend.

Ngelzarma said pastoralists were looking for the creation of a pool-blown Federal Ministry for Livestock and Fisheries instead of the National Animal Husbandry and Ranches Commission for the Regulation, Management, Preservation and Control of Ranches.

Advocacy Times gathered that a bill for an act to ban open grazing and establish ranches as an antidote for the perennial clashes between sedentary farmers and nomadic herders in Nigeria scaled second reading after a slightly heated debate in the Senate.

But speaking with newsmen in Damaturu, Yobe capital, during an interview with newsmen shortly after the inauguration of the state Executive Council of the Association, he said by the creation of the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, ‘‘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.

According to him, ‘‘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’’ He said.

He called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to implement the recommendations of the Livestock Reforms and Mitigation Committee headed by the former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor 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 inanest’’ 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.’’