Sa’ad Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto, has met with the
leadership of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN)
over the challenges facing herders in the country.
Speaking during the meeting on Friday, in Abuja, Sultan said
there is need to find workable solutions to address security and socioeconomic
challenges confronting members of the association.
The monarch, who is the chairman board of trustees of the
association, lamented the stereotyping of herders and how they are associated
with crime.
The Sultan stated that it is not every criminality perpetrated in the country that is done by the Fulanis, while he urged herders to respect constituted authorities and shun all forms of acts capable of tarnishing their reputations.
Also, Usman Bugaje, a senior advisor to the Sultan, stated
that the objective of the meeting was to ensure a genuine search for solutions
to the entire problem affecting the Fulanis in the country.
“We are helping at the secretariat level to bring out the
issues and see how we can look at other economic, social and even ethnic
dimensions to the problems,” Bugaje said.
“And, there are timelines put to it, we have agreed that
there will be timeline, we are not going to leave it open.
“Because we need to get it done within one year maximum from
now if all the stakeholders are ready to cooperate.”
Baba Ngelzarma, national secretariat of MACBAN, urged the
government to initiate programmes that would take idle pastoralist out of
criminality and engage them in learning other skills in addition to cattle
rearing.
“Even the cattle rearing are they getting money? Their
cattle are not competing with the ones you have in other parts of the world
that weigh 700 to 800 kilograms per cow,” Ngelzarma said.
“The milk output is also not competing with the other ones
in the world where one single cow is given an output 50 litres per day.
“We still hold the outdated species of the cow that are
weighing not more than 100 to 120 kilograms and given out an output of milk
that is not more than three to five litres per day.
“So, a lots need to be done by government, religious
leaders, traditional rulers and pastoralist associations.”
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