Government Should Provide Feeds For Herders To End Open Grazing – Osun Miyetti Allah

Osun State Chapter of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), has called on federal government to provide animal feeds for their livestock in order to end open grazing in the country.

Chairman of the association, Muhammed Abdullahi, made the call in an exclusive interview with OSUN DEFENDER while reacting to the allegation levelled against it by farmers in Koka village, Osogbo.

The farmers in the village had accused fulani herders of grazing their animals on their farms, a development which had caused a rise in tension between farmer and elders in the area.

Reacting to the accusation, Abdullahi maintained that Osun is not the only state in the country with farmers and herders’ crisis, noting that Southwest and Southeast had even passed a law to abolish open grazing.

Speaking further, he said if all regions in Nigeria rejected open grazing without alternative being provided for the herders, there may not be livestock for human consumption.

He insisted that if government want herders to obey the law, animal feeds should be provided for the cows in the ranches where they be reared as being practiced in other countries.

“If the government want us to put them in ranches, they must provide where we can buy animal feeds. All other countries that do ranching provide where to get animal feeds but there is none Nigeria here,” he said.

He however sued for peace with the farmers saying they should allow amicable resolutions anytime crisis ensued.

“The same law was made in southwest and east, any government that made law must provide where we buy feeds and everything.

“They are not the only ones complaining, it is all over Nigeria. In fact, the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike also abolished grazing in Abuja but how can that be possible? Before he was a minister, were people that served before him not aware of grazing or are they not ministers?

“What I want you to understand is that anything they say or complain about, whenever it happens, we should settle one on one, if Koka, Ibadan, Iwo and everyone abolish open grazing, can we have animals in Nigeria?” he queried.

OSUN DEFENDER recalled that there have been several allegations levelled on herders for allegedly destroying farm lands with their cattle with some reported killings and kidnappings of some farmers by suspected herdsmen in the country.

These has led to allegations and counter allegations between farmers and Fulani herders especially in southwest communities.

The aforementioned and many more triggered the establishment of a regional security network code named Operation Amotekun by South-West governors chaired by the late Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu.