A group, the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has urged President Bola Tinubu to reverse the decision to establish the Ministry of livestock Development.
By Chimezie Godfrey
A group, the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has urged President Bola Tinubu to reverse the decision to establish the Ministry of livestock Development.
The Group in a statement signed by its National President, Dr Pogu Bitrus also urged Mr President to immediately disband Presidential Committee on Livestock Reforms.
Bitrus stressed that to create a ministry solely for livestock development without first addressing the fundamental problems bedevilling agriculture in Nigeria as well as providing succour to those displaced by the human tragedy occasioned by the land grab agenda of the Fulani, is not only insensitive but communicates to the people that government elevates cattle over human beings.
He said,”The Middle Belt Forum notes that embedded in the policy statement justifying the establishment of the new ministry is that the ministry would address what the government mischaracterises as “farmer-herder clashes”, but which in reality is a land grab agenda by marauding armed Fulani seeking to turn Nigeria into an enclave for resettling Fulani from the entire West Africa sub region and Central Africa.
“The Fulani have consistently asserted that Nigeria is their God-given inheritance and claim that the ECOWAS Protocol on Transhumance and its Regulations allow Fulani from all over West Africa to enter unconditionally and reside in Nigeria. This Fulani land grab agenda has been responsible for the death of thousands of Nigerians, displaced millions of Nigerians and turned them into Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in their own country, unable to return to their ancestral land with some of them in other nations like the Cameroons, as refugees.
“We do not believe that the advocates of the new ministry have national interest at heart, they appear to represent vicious special interests. They want to further bloat the already over bloated public sector. Their attention is land grabbing and cornering of resources which are politically sensitive and explosive issues. This Fulani land grab agenda is responsible for the massive food insecurity and has also foisted on the nation a climate of general insecurity in Nigeria necessitating massive food importation because farmers in the Middle Belt are unable to access their farms. To therefore create a ministry solely for livestock development without first addressing the fundamental problems bedevilling agriculture in Nigeria as well as providing succour to those displaced by the human tragedy occasioned by the land grab agenda of the Fulani, is not only insensitive but communicates to the people that government elevates cattle over human beings!
“Finally, the creation of a new bureaucracy will be a policy summersault that cannot be justified either by any economic logic or rationalisation in the face of the recent adoption of the Oronsanye Report which acceptance this government communicated to Nigerians with great fanfare. This policy is another ammunition in the arsenal of those who assert that this government may yet go down in history as the most profligate in all the years of Nigeria’s self-government. This perception must not be allowed to continue and the starting point will be the reversal of this policy.”
Bitrus added,”On the day the President announced the ill-advised establishment of a Ministry for Livestock Development, he also announced the composition of a Presidential Committee on the Implementation of Livestock Reforms. The 25-member committee has 14 Fulani representing Fulani herders’ interest, as members! The Co-Chairman, who is the de facto chairman of the committee, is Professor Attahiru Jega, a Fulani Professor of Political Science and has no background in animal husbandry, making his qualification for the appointment purely his ethnic affiliation which is Fulani.
“It is worrisome that the ethnic complexion of this committee is another of the many false starts by government in dealing with the armed Fulani land grab agenda mischaracterised as “Farmers – Herders clashes” that has led to untold suffering in the Middle Belt, in particular and the entire Nigeria as a whole, particularly under former President Buhari, leading to untold hunger and a climate of general insecurity. It beggars the imagination how President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has fallen into this Fulani violent land grab agenda quagmire.
“To start with, the composition of the committee violates Section 14 (3) which prohibits the dominance of any ethnic group in the composition of any government agency. The rationale for the framers of our constitution including this safeguard is to promote national unity and command national loyalty. This committee negates this basic constitutional principle and on that ground alone this committee should be immediately disbanded.
“Moreover, the composition of the committee and the announcement of a new ministry has given the impression to the Fulani that their violent land grab agenda has been realised. The aura of triumphalism, arrogance and gloating with which the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) and their counterpart Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore have been celebrating the announcement of the establishment of the Ministry of Livestock Development has given the impression that the ministry is purely for Fulani and cows despite the known fact that the funding of the ministry will not come from cow revenue but from oil and revenue essentially generated from other parts of the country!
“This impression cannot be explained away as the government has created the impression by the termination of the case filed by the Attorney General of the Federation and the freedom granted to the fellow who established an illegal security outfit of thousands of Fulani whose nationalities are unknown, the non-representation of breeders of poultry and other forms of livestock on the committee, and the skewed representation of Fulani in the composition of the committee under reference. This can only lead to one conclusion – this ministry will be for Fulani from any country of the world and for their cows.
“On the basis of the foregoing, the Middle Belt Forum hereby makes the following calls: -President Ahmed Bola Tinubu should immediately reverse the decision to establish a Ministry of Livestock Development and allow the National Livestock Department in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to do its work. The President may however wish to strengthen the Department. In addition, the MBF recommend that crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry should all be integrated under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture where multidisciplinary collaboration under one ministry will save cost, ensure effectiveness and make over all supervision by the president easier.
“The MBF calls on President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to immediately disband the Presidential Committee on Livestock Reforms, direct the Federal Ministry of Housing, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the National Population Commission and the Nigerian Army to resettle all Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in their ancestral homes within 1 year. This will ensure that there is healing on the part of ethnic nationalities displaced from their homes as a result of the violent land grab agenda of the Fulani which the composition of the presidential committee is a clear admission of who the aggressor is, that is, if there was even any doubt in the first place.”
Bitrus urged President Tinubu to visit in person the various IDP camps in the various states of the middle belt and speak words of comfort to the IDPs as many of them feel neglected and dejected.
“We call on the President to visit in person the various IDP camps in the various states of the middle belt and speak words of comfort to the IDPs as many of them feel neglected and dejected particularly the elderly many of them patriots who fought and lost limbs and friends to keep this country one. The blood and labours of the parents of many of the residents of the IDP camps spread across the middle belt should not be seen to be in vain.
“As people of the Food Security Zone of this country, we state categorically that Nigeria’s agriculture has failed woefully, continuously, because of special interests and unnecessary politicization of policies. Our appeal is that the Federal Government retrace its steps on the decision to set up a new Ministry of Livestock Development.
“The Federal Government should also disband the Presidential Committee on Livestock Reforms and consult widely on this very
“God bless all the Ethnic Nationalities of the Middle Belt. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he stated.
The post Middle Belt Forum to Tinubu: Reverse decision to establish Ministry of livestock Devt appeared first on News Diary Online.
