The Nigerian senate has passed, for second reading, a bill seeking to establish a national animal husbandry and ranches commission. The bill titled “A Bill to Establish a National Animal Husbandry and Ranches Commission for the Regulation, Management, Preservation and Control of Ranches Throughout Nigeria; and for Connected Purposes, 2024” sponsored by senator Titus Zam, APC, Benue northwest, aims to regulate cattle rearing and ranching across the country.
Speaking on the merits of the bill, Senator Zam lamented the increasing wave of violent conflicts that erupt from pastoralists and farmers interaction in Nigeria.
He said such conflicts had assumed a war-like dimension “with far reaching negative impact on the people and country as a whole.”
He said the Senate cannot afford to look on while the country burns into ashes as a result of violent clashes between sedentary farmers and nomadic herders.
The Senator said: “As stakeholders in the Nigeria project and elected representatives of the people, doing so would amount to abdication of our statutory and leadership responsibilities.”
He said, “Every effort (was) is laced with maneuvers that speak to our ethnic and political biases or sentiments, thus resisted by the people.
“This 10th Senate has a date with history. We must rise in one accord to sort out this problem of herders-farmers violent conflicts that would, if allowed to linger longer, consume even more lives and properties than the civil war of 1967-1970.
“Therefore, now is the time to put a permanent stop to the endless circle of attacks and counter attacks by our people and their external collaborators.
“Now is the time to adopt international best practices in animal husbandry. Now is the time to bring about a law to stop open grazing. It is old fashioned, hazardous, burdensome and must be discarded.”
Not all the lawmakers were thrilled by the content of the bill, and many argued fiercely against it, especially a clause in the lead debate which said pastoralists should establish ranches in their state of origin.
A former Governor of Gombe State, Senator Mohammed Goje, observed that the bill was discriminatory by proposing to restrict the herders to a particular geographical location.
“There are many angles to this issue of farmers and herders. We have to tackle the problem holistically. These Fulanis are Nigerians,” he said.
A similar sentiment was expressed by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Sports, Senator Suleiman Abdulrahman-Kawu, who said the bill would breach the constitutional rights of the herders. He said, “The bill is totally against the constitution of Nigeria. The bill will even compound the problem of the herders and the farmers. You can’t propose a law to attend to a particular group or section of the country only. This bill is not holistic, and we will fight it till the end,” Kawu stated.
President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, while rounding off the debate, urged all senators to be calm by letting the bill go for a public hearing.
“We must hold a public hearing and bring all the stakeholders to have a say, including cattle herders and the state governments”, Akpabio remarked shortly before he rammed his gavel for the second reading.
It was thereafter forwarded to the Senate Committees on Agriculture, Trade and Investment, Judiciary and Legal Matters for more legislative inputs within the next four weeks.
