Tag: Ganduje

KANO State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, seems more bemused than bewildered by the recent furore over herdsmen/farmers clashes all over the country. During his inspection of the vaccination of over one million cattle and other small animals at the Kadawa artificial insemination centre in Garum Malam Local Government Area of Kano State last Sunday, the governor wondered why killings had persisted between farmers and herdsmen when a fitting and sensible solution stared everyone in the face. According to him, Kano State alone had more than enough grazing land and infrastructure for animal husbandry to cater to the needs of the country’s herdsmen. He, therefore, advised Nigeria’s herdsmen to take advantage of the facilities the state has provided by relocating to Kano and conducting their businesses productively and peacefully.

Judging from Dr Ganduje’s submission last Sunday, two unsavoury facts emerge from the federal government’s own solution to the herdsmen/farmers clashes. One is that, contrary to the impression the Agriculture minister, Audu Ogbeh, gave, the establishment of cattle colonies was neither well thought out nor the only solution to the clashes. Chief Ogbeh had suggested to the media and Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, that the colonies panacea was the federal government’s conclusive solution to the clashes, and in fact the only solution to the bloodletting laying many parts of the country waste. He even added that each state not averse to the colonies idea was expected to contribute, for a fee, about 5,000 hectares of land for that purpose.

Two, it is all but clear that the federal government at no time really deliberated on the crisis with a view to finding a realistic and implementable solution to the crisis. What seemed evident was that a sinister group existed somewhere along government corridors who had both a jaded idea of animal husbandry and a rather expansionist, if not irredentist, agenda to benefit cattle breeders and the Fulani in particular. There was no contemplation of modern forms of animal husbandry, no ruminations about the crisis that free grazing often engendered, and no responsible and imaginative consideration of the feelings of reluctant host communities who were being press-ganged into a costly promotion of cattle breeders’ business. Instead, and sadly too, President Muhammadu Buhari and all his top security chiefs have been guilty of this dereliction of duty as a government. They have either haughtily blamed grieving host communities and their farmers or counselled them to, in the name of God, accommodate their fellow countrymen.

It turned out that, as Dr Ganduje said, the solution was neither far-fetched nor even too costly. If there is no ulterior motive to the retention of old and now unworkable traditional methods of animal husbandry, it is perhaps time the slow-to-change federal government, the impetuous Agriculture ministry, and the president who has simply refused to advert his mind to the problem, let alone conceive a forthright and productive solution, engaged the ideas of Dr Ganduje and see whether his solution does not have integrity and practicality. For it is absolutely clear that the old methods of animal husbandry cannot work and will not conduce to peace. It is indeed selfish of the federal government to turn a blind eye to the pains of the farmers, ignore the cultural sensibilities of farming communities expected to host the cattle breeders, and demonstrate an unseemly eagerness to spend humongous amount of money to patronise and pamper cattle breeders to the detriment of those who have been at the receiving end of their thuggery and callousness.

Though Dr Ganduje insists Kano State alone can cater to the needs of the country’s entire cattle breeders population, and had profusely demonstrated that capacity last Sunday, it is even more evident that a few states in the North, where animal husbandry is a potentially big business, can take dairy farming to the next level and make Nigeria one of the biggest in Africa. If only the federal government can eschew its slothfulness and learn from Kano State. Here is how Dr Ganduje put his case, recognising how easily his state could rake in huge revenues from the business: “…We have enough grazing land, ranches and traditional livestock routes…So, they (herdsmen) don’t have any reason to move out of the state. We take care of them and we accord them the respect and dignity they deserve…I am inviting herdsmen from all parts of Nigeria to relocate to Kano because we have enough facilities to accommodate them. We have grazing lands in Rogo, Gaya, Kura, Tudun Wada, Ungogo and other reserved places where facilities are in place to accommodate the herdsmen and their cattle…The Falgore Game Reserve can take care of millions of herdsmen and their cattle in Nigeria. The place has been designed to contain schools, human and animal clinics, markets, recreational centres, and other social amenities that can give the herdsmen enough  comfort to take care of their animals and do their business without hindrance.”

Dr Ganduje continues: “These killings must stop. We cannot afford to continue to witness these senseless killings in the name of Fulani herdsmen and farmers’ clash over lack of grazing land while we have a place like the Falgore Game Reserve underutilised. Cattle rustling is now history because we fought the menace headlong. In Falgore right now, we have enough security there. Those rustlers have relocated elsewhere, while some of them who repented from their evil ways were given amnesty and rehabilitated…A cattle intervention centre has been established to address the challenges associated with the livelihoods of herdsmen within Kano. Just recently, we sponsored the training of over 61 Fulani herdsmen who were sent to Turkey to learn artificial insemination. They are back to Kano and I must tell you that they are doing well in the various places they have been assigned to do their jobs.”

Going by the Ganduje panacea, three or four states in the cattle belt can sustain Nigeria’s herdsmen and provide beef and dairy products substantial enough for domestic consumption and exports. The governor in fact thinks Kano alone can do the job. If there are no other political and socio-cultural considerations by a shadowy group within the presidency, if the Buhari presidency is not being manipulated for sinister motives perhaps far beyond his own ken, and if Chief Ogbeh is not being used as a lackey by those who have little interest in the peace and unity of Nigeria, then it is time the federal government got serious about resolving the farmers/herdsmen crisis. The problem, as Kano State has shown, is essentially a state affair. States which have interest in promoting dairy farming should be encouraged to ranch as Kano has done, and develop the infrastructure required to sustain the business. If they need federal assistance, they should know how to get it.

Federalising herdsmen colonies or even grazing reserves is foolish and inimical to peace and progress. There is too little thinking going on in the federal government. They should ship up or be shown the way out at the next polls. Reports suggest that the copycat Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, is thinking of establishing ranches in Adavi and Ajaokuta LGs. This is after first thoughtlessly embracing the colonies boondoggle. If he can persuade those two LGs to embrace the business in order to improve the state’s IGR, if he is not using the idea as a cover for his political servility, if he can set aside the money required to sustain that demanding business, perhaps he should be encouraged to get on with it. But there are doubts about his depth and about his motives.

Nevertheless, Dr Ganduje has shown the way cattle ranching can be done, and how dairy farming can both be profitable and a promoter of peace and development. The federal government and Chief Ogbeh, assuming they do not see the herdsmen matter as a political issue, should engage the Kano model and see whether it does not dispel all their fears and answer the visionary developmental programme that animal husbandry can potentially become as a huge revenue earner for some states in the North. Too much blood has been shed for so little. It is time to put a stop to the madness, instead of holding on foolishly and tenaciously to outdated animal husbandry methods that set the society on fire.