Armed herdsmen causing insecurity in the country
Miyetti Allah declares support for anti-open grazing law in Rivers
[From CHRIS EZE, Yenagoa]
Umbrella organization of cattle breeders, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Rivers State chapter, has thrown its weight behind the prohibition of open rearing and grazing Bill, 2021 recently enacted by the Rivers State House of Assembly and signed into law by Governor Nyesom Wike.
In an interview with the chairman of MACBAN, Alhaji Yau Musa Mogodi, at the weekend, he disclosed that while his association supports the bill, the government should address the grey areas contained in the law.
He pointed out that before the bill was enacted and passed into law, the Assembly committee on Agriculture and Environment which considered the bill before it was passed and signed into law failed to identify who is a real Fulani cattle rearer, cattle marketer and butchers doing cattle business in different parts of the state.
Yau explained that both Rivers indigenes and non-indigenes including Nigeria Fulanis and some foreigners from Niger and Chad republic who are not organized rearers and breeders bring and maintain a good number of cows in their different locations across the communities in the state.
He explained: “A typical Fulani cattle rearer/breeder has his settlement with his family in Rivers State rural communities away from township and he grazes his cows along with new born ones while other dealers like marketers and butchers only keep adult ones for their business.
“Our association has discovered that the non-Fulanis who keep their cows in the different rural communities hire non-Fulanis to guide their cows, they take these cows out in the night to feed and in the process these cows stray to people’s farms to eat up crops. What the public hears after is that Fulani cows are eating and destroying farmers’ farms and that has been a false allegation I have been battling with to clear our image.
“We keep receiving this accusation but no Fulani cattle rearer has ever been reported to the police and arrested by community people who always cry out against innocent Fulanis. We always ensure that our cows don’t move about in the night from their locations and that is why we that identify with communities where we settle do not have problems with the people over issues of our cows invading their farms”.
He stressed that the objectives of the law are of paramount importance to MACBAN as organized Fulani cattle breeders and appealed to the government to integrate his members to benefit from the establishment of livestock, ranch administration and control committee.
Yau also submitted that as the law has been established in the state; there is need for the government to co-opt them, (Fulanis) to have the knowledge of the workings of the committee and its in-dept terms of references on the rearing or grazing livestock at the state and local government levels.
He also made a case that for the Fulani communities/extraction to benefit from the objectives of the law, they should be included in the promotion of modern techniques of animal husbandry; production, investment opportunities and expansion of value chain in livestock farming; promotion of international best practices in the dairy and beef density in the state, among others.
Yau noted further: “There is need and necessity for awareness to the herders, ranchers in form of education, training and re-training. Cattle dealers and Nigeria Butchers Union should also be part of the council/committee to preside over meetings, and the prohibition should be devoid of discrimination against non-indigenes’’, he maintained.
The MACBAN leader urged the government to stay action on prosecution of those who may flout the law until full awareness; education and training on the provisions of the law are fully assimilated by the Fulani cattle breeders.
