Why herders would back Tinubu in 2023 Miyetti Allah, Shettima

According to the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore sociocultural organization, Bola Tinubu, the APC’s nominee for president, has pledged to handle the problem with the Livestock Intervention Programme and the recovery of the “450 grazing routes across the country.”

Saleh Alhassan, the group’s secretary general and also known as Miyetti Allah, revealed this in an interview with PUNCH.

Recall that the contentious Rural Grazing Area Scheme, popularly known as RUGA, was suspended two years before the launch of the Livestock Intervention Programme.

The Federal Government said that one of its goals was to resolve the ongoing farmer-herder conflict that exists across the nation.

Many southern states had advocated for ranching, arguing that since raising cattle was a private enterprise, herders should own property and graze their animals there. They also claimed that by doing so, the regular conflicts between herders and farmers would be resolved.

Alhassan, whose organization serves as the national umbrella organization for herders, stated that a Tinubu administration will protect the interests of Fulani pastoralists.

He declared, “We wholeheartedly support Tinubu for president.
The forum was where we were.
This was based on the candidate’s platform from the APC.
We believed the Tinubu/Shettima administration would better defend our interests.

The support for Tinubu’s candidacy was unanimous.

“Tinubu assured us that he would see to it that the National Livestock Development Plan of the current administration of the President, Muhammadu Buhari, was carried out. This plan calls for modernizing the livestock sub-sector and addressing the problem of cattle rustling and kidnapping allegations between herders and farmers.

“Across the nation, there will be more ranches, exotic breeding sites, and the creeping sedentarization of the nomadic herders.
We are hoping for the Tinubu/Shettima presidency to achieve this.

“The beginning points for every contemporary ranch one wishes to create in this area are the 450 grazing routes, most of which are found in the North.
These are spaces set aside for herders to conduct business related to the raising of cattle.