The Minister of Agriculture and
Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, has explained why ranching remains the best
panacea to the clashes between farmers and herdsmen in the country.
Speaking during his appearance on
a special Channels Television programme – The Core on Wednesday, Ogbeh said
people were against the decision because ranches were poorly managed.
“It’s very nice to say ranches
won’t work, they won’t work because they were not well managed. It’s not enough
to cut out an area and say it’s a grazing reserve – grow the grass,” he said.
Responding to those calling for
the creation of grazing routes, the minister noted that such recommendation
would do more harm than good as it could be a recipe for more chaos.
He pointed out a situation when
he was in Katsina State with Governor Aminu Masari where he was informed that
about 3,000 cows have just arrived the state from the Republic of Niger.
Ogbeh, who recalled that he was
widely insulted over his comments on the social media, said he had written to
state governors to request for lands for grazing.
He was, however, disappointed
that the responses he got were not encouraging as a majority of the governors
said they had no land for such purpose.
On the causes of the clashes, the
Minister said: “two years ago when I came into the Ministry, I wrote to all the
state governors saying, ‘we face danger and this crisis can only get worse if
we do nothing’.
“Can we have some lands in your
state where we create large reserves of ranches to keep these cattle and give
them the grass, the water, and the medication they need? Some replied
positively, and some said no.
“We must ranch, there’s no other
way out of this. We either ranch or banish cattle from Nigeria.”
He further accused the governors
of being careless in addressing the crisis and called for a reform in the
management of livestock in the country.
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