By Eric Ikhilae, Abuja

Members of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) have unanimously agreed that time was ripe to end “open, night and underage grazing in the country.”

They however, cautioned against the profiling of ethnic groups based on  the misbehavior of a few criminally-minded individuals.

The governors accepted also to put in place systems  to  accelerate  the  grazing  initiative  of  the  National  Livestock  Transformation  Plan (NLTP) and ranching in their respective states. This, according to them, will help to  douse the tension  caused across the country by herders-farmers clashes.

These were contained in a communiqué arising from Wednesday’s  25th virtual meeting of the NGF which was made available to reporters on Thursday.

The statement was however silent on the date the governors  hoped  to put a stop to the  movement of cattle across state borders.

Read Also: Why Southwest ban on open/night grazing may not work – Expert 

It reads in part :  “Following  an  update  from  governors  on  the  various  initiatives  taken by  state  governments  to  address the  rising  insecurity  in  the  country  due  to  the  activities  of  herdsmen,  members  reached  a  consensus on  the  need  for  the  country  to transition  into  modern  systems  of  animal  husbandry  that  will  replace open,  night  and  underage  grazing in  the country.

“State  governments  are  encouraged  to  put  in  place systems  to  accelerate  the  grazing  initiative  of  the NLTP and  ranching in  the  country.

“The  forum  respects  the  right  of  abode  of  all  Nigerians  and  strongly  condemns  criminality  and  the ethnic  profiling  of  crimes  in  the  country  in  an  effort  to frame the widespread banditry and herders-farmers crises.

“In  the  light  of  the  economic  and  security  risks  that  have  arisen  from  these circumstances,  the  forum  resolved  to  urgently  convene  an  emergency  meeting  of  all governors.

“The  Chairman  of  the  Northern  States  Governors’  Forum  (NSGF)  and  Governor  of  Plateau  State,   Simon   Lalong,   provided  an  update  on  steps  taken  by  the  governors  of  the   19 Northern  states  and  cautioned  against  the  tagging  of  ethnic  groups  based  on  the  misbehavior  of  a  few criminally -minded individuals.

“He  (Lalong) called  on  state  governors  to  address  this  matter  head-on  in  their various  states.”

The governors added that  following  an  update  by  Governor  Abubakar  Bagudu  of Kebbi  State, they  resolved  to immediately address  the  misinformation  from  the  Federal  Ministry  of  Agriculture  and  Natural  Resources  that  it  has so  far  registered  4.5  million  farmers  nationwide  under  the  Agriculture  for  Food  and  Jobs  Plan  (AFJP).

The AFJP is a  key  component  of the Nigeria  Economic  and  Sustainability  Plan  (NESP)  designed  to  help  mitigate the  impact of  COVID-19  on farmers.

The meeting also dwelt on ways to ensure effective distribution of COVID-19  vaccines when they are available.

The  governors also plan to  inaugurate  an  advisory group  of  experts  to  provide  high-level  strategic  guidance  and  support  to  states on  the  procurement of  the   vaccines  in  the  short  time  and  their  local  production     in  the  medium  to  long term.

The  governors will  directly  with  the  National  Primary  Health  Care  Development  Agency (NPHCDA)  to  ensure  that  vaccines  are  administered  equitably,  first  to  workers  who  are  on the frontline of the pandemic.

The meeting also  noted that states had  been   under-utilising existing   fiscal  facilities  in  the  country,  including  the  Universal Basic  Education  (UBE)  Fund,  the  Basic  Health  Care  Provision  Fund  (BHCPF)  and  the  Saving  One Million  Lives  programme.

They noted that  timely  implementation  of  these  facilities  in  line  with  the  financing  plans  of  states  was  vital  to ensure  expenditure  coherence  and  the  sustainability  for  several  projects  on  primary  health  care  and basic  education  implemented  at  the  state-level,  especially  during  this  period  of the  COVID-19 era.

On the  Basic  Health  Care  Provision  Fund (BHCPF), the statement quoted the NGF Chairman, Governor Kayode  Fayemi of Ekiti State as  expressing concern over the delay in  the payment of funds to  the  three BHCPF pilot  states of  Abia,  Niger and  Osun.