Open grazing ban: Wike faces opposition in FCT despite harsh rhetoric from Miyetti Allah

The FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has announced the halt of open-grazing of cattle as part of his pledged commitment to restore Abuja’s position as the Federal Capital Territory.

To reposition Abuja and put it on the map of the globe, numerous initiatives have been made in the past.

The unpleasant smell and unsightly appearance of animal waste left all over the city, which draws flies and puts residents at danger of disease, are difficult to deal with.

It is impossible to overstate the risks associated with open and unrestricted grazing, which extend beyond the Federal Capital Territory.

According to Obasanjonews24, Dino Melaye, a former chairman of the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory, threatened to stop the movement of animals in the FCT and once gave the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Bello, the order to butcher cows found in the city centre.

Melaye had remarked that despite repeated warnings from the government to the owners of the livestock, the herdsmen had persisted to transport their animals across the city of Abuja.

“Honourable Minister, the Senate as a body is unhappy with the way Fulani herders continue to carry their cows through the city centre, even though we are aware that you previously issued an order prohibiting this.

“Starting now, acquire knives, order your men to butcher any cows they find in the capital, and fine herdsmen who are seen with cows in the city centre N50,000 per cow. Melaye declared that this directive had to be followed.

Whatever efforts the former Kogi senator and others made to put a halt to open grazing in the FCT failed.

But Wike has now accepted the challenge.

A few hours after taking the oath of office, he made the bold proclamation, “I will step on toes, the big and mighty; I will step on your toes if you are doing something wrong,” and insisted that while herders could move their cattle outside the city, they would no longer be permitted to graze on the grasses used to enhance the city’s beauty.

It is therefore unclear how the Minister intends to remove the herdsmen from the city’s core without also taking action to ensure that they can continue to operate legally and support themselves.

Experts contend that if the affected people were not given other alternatives, the situation would be comparable to that of Abuja’s prohibition on okada, street hawking, and store demolitions.

It may also be compared to the elimination of fuel subsidies without adequate planning and consultation to mitigate the impact.

The incoming FCT Administration may face a mammoth challenge in prohibiting herdsmen from transporting their cows around the FCT, therefore careful planning and sufficient stakeholder consultation are needed, according to a worried citizen.

When discussing the issues last weekend, the minister was a little more understated.

We cannot allow cows into the city, so Wike stated, “We will confer with the herdsmen to see how we can prohibit [open grazing].

The grasses are outside the city, so they could be there as well. The city’s grass was planted for aesthetic purposes. They wouldn’t eat that one, though. So, let’s talk about that.

The National President of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Baba Othman Ngelzarma, told Obasanjonews24 that they are eager to meet with the FCT Minister so they can discuss some of their issues, including the sizable dysfunctional grazing reserves.

Before making a decision, the minister stated that he would invite the livestock owners. That he wouldn’t do anything in case someone revealed they hadn’t been contacted.

So this is the scenario we constantly hope for. We are aware that Abuja is a city and that cows shouldn’t be allowed to go around or graze there. It’s a major embarrassment. All of us are civilised.

“We had a number of discussions on this even when the last Minister was in office. No cows were allowed to move in the central city area per our agreement. However, they are free to move in the sahel’s periphery because farmers have taken up all of their grazing lands.

In Abuja, there are grazing reserves that farmers have taken over. We therefore require Wike-like character to arrive and finally resolve this.

“There are four grazing reserves in the Abuja area, but they need to be developed and filled with other things before you can stop these people from roaming around.

“Because the Federal Capital has turned the entirety of Abuja into a grazing reserve. They do not, however, have the right to relocate because the Federal Capital Territory is the pride of every Nigerian and because the situation in the central city region is so unsightly.

The arrangement we have with the former Minister is as stated above. However, they are able to move freely in rural regions since the grazing reserves are undeveloped, lack forage, and farmers are slowly encroaching on them.

We wish to interact with Wike personally because we are aware of his compassionate nature, his understanding of the dynamics, and the fact that doing so will allow us to further the development of the grazing reserves.

And we are confident Wike will create them. He will recover and develop our grazing lands. We are eager to communicate with him. We want to talk with him about how we can look for these issues. We all agree that cows should not be allowed to roam the city.

However, not all of the cows roaming the city are the property of the nearby pastoralists. Cows are not meant to be roaming in the central city area, despite the fact that some of these cows are owned by powerful men in the city who are paying pastoralists to graze for them.

But we also need to take pastoralists into account because the grazing reserves are not yet created. They have designated areas where they can graze their cows, but such areas are undeveloped.

“No infrastructure, no grazes, and no water. For the sake of pastoralists’ interests as well as justice and fairness, they deserve to be developed.

“We know Wike.” He is the best candidate to complete this task for us because he has an aggressive personality type and will return and develop our grazing field on his own. We are prepared to meet with him whenever he invites us so that we may finally resolve this issue.

The Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, a MACBAN sister group, has a slightly different perspective on the movement of cows in the FCT or any other city in the nation.

Saleh Alhassan Kubah, the organization’s National Secretary, told our correspondent that no one could drive the cows out of the north or prevent them from grazing there.

Instead of talking about cows, the former governor of Rivers State, in his opinion, should concentrate on how to enhance Abuja.

He added that most of the cows seen around Abuja belong to the city elites and that it would be ineffective for the government to remove herders from the FCT unless it is able to provide grazing spaces for livestock.

“In Abuja, where is the grazing land? Will they graze within the structure? The problem is that Wike is not important. Ortom has come and gone from our view.

We don’t want to include Wike since he must drink ‘Ogogoro’ (an alcoholic beverage) every morning before going to work.

You’ve never heard of it? He did indeed say it. In the FCT, let him perform his services. We are anticipating his future acts of kindness. You are aware that he represents our party, thus I am unable to attack him.

Our minister, he is. So I’m not interested in arguing with our minister. It doesn’t matter because Abuja lacks a grazing area.

He’ll find a way for them because all of the livestock you see there belong to the local aristocracy. Wike doesn’t call for our comments. Let him handle the large abandoned structures.

“Let him collect taxes from all those vacant homes. Allow him to expand the city. Let him look after the Gwari people, an underserved group of indigenous people.

He is an Ikwerre from Port Harcourt. He is aware of their habits in Port Harcourt. He will know how to handle them if the Gwari people show him 10% of the behaviour of the Ikwerre people in Port Harcourt. Let him create satellite towns and rural areas, and provide them with amenities. Power is ephemeral.

Whatever happens, he’s going to go shortly. We can’t talk to him. From us, he cannot obtain fresh knowledge. He is a people pleaser. Does the area around the Villa have any grazing land?

Alternatively, is it the sight of cows that people dislike? Are cows not the natural beauty of the North? Is it not contradictory that you want to eat cows but not see them?

What you will witness in the northern geography if there are no cows is a catastrophe brought on by the spirits of the land. Because the cows must migrate for the spirits to be content, the land won’t be steady. It is their surroundings.

He is unable to drive the cows away. Who is going to drive the cows out of the northern region? No one can follow them. We are not progressing.

“Why is he giving them more time when he can revoke the lands in the FCT? I anticipated that he would immediately revoke them.

“Neither the FCT nor the AMAC area council have any grazing areas in the Abuja development plan…

“Let him take care of the security issues in Abuja. He will never have us as an issue.

The Director of Animal Husbandry Services in the FCT’s Agricultural and Rural Development, Hajiya Umma Abubakar, also discussed the measures already in place to relocate the herders to comfortable areas in an interview with Obasanjonews24.

She claims that the creation of the Grazing Reserves is intended to enable the Fulani pastoralists to engage in livestock operations that are on par with the greatest anywhere in the world, in addition to resettling them.

She claims that there are already plans in place to not only develop the four grazing reserves in Abuja, but also to transform them into important economic centres for the herders and the communities they live in.

She claimed that the minister of the FCT and the minister of state for the FCT are both keen on the idea of herders relocating to the capital city of the country.

“To address the issues of compensation and put an end to the ongoing conflicts between the Fulani and the local communities, the Secretariat embarked on a comprehensive enumeration exercise to identify the genuine residents that will be compensated to ensure that no member of the community is left out,” she said.

“The Special Agricultural Processing Zone (SAPZ) Project, which the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) & the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) are co-funding, would without a doubt complement the objective of the FCT Administration in developing the grazing reserves.

“I can guarantee that the SAPZ Project will address the problem of open grazing because one of its components, the Agriculture Transformation Centres (ATC), aims to increase the capacities of all the groups involved in various aspects of the livestock value chains, such as the production of high-quality feeds and the processing of milk, among others.

Water will also be available at the centres so that people can easily fatten their animals there rather than taking them outside the reserves.

She continued, “The profiling that we are undertaking on a daily basis is to allow us to identify new and old Fulani ranchers. This will help us to distinguish between indigenous herders and migrant herders, especially those from outside the nation.

We collaborate with law enforcement and security organisations, as well as local communities that are aware of people who are involved in legitimate activities that pose no threat to society.

The director responded to the problem of ongoing opposition to the creation of the grazing reserves from some host communities by saying, “We are working closely with the host communities on the necessity for peaceful coexistence.

“We have also been interacting with the groups to inform them of how the development of the reserves will affect them all.

“Livestock activities involve more people than just Fulani. Even crop farmers can participate in a variety of production processes, such as the production of animal feed, and they can also profit from the waste of cattle, such as dung.

“The Honourable Minister of the FCT’s proposal to meet with all the stakeholders will provide the intended result a boost.

The minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has pledged to offer the required assistance to ensure that the development plans for the four grazing reserves in Abuja are carried out and improved upon.

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