Recently, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, took stock of the security challenges across the country over the “clashes” between farmers and herders, submitting that ranching offers a viable solution to the problem. Speaking in an interview at the Defence headquarters, Abuja, Musa said that the problem required political will to resolve. He said: “This issue of farmers-herders clash is a simple thing. I am a farmer. My animals are caged; I have them in a ranch. I have grassland, I feed them. So, if we have this issue of animals going into farms maybe because the animal routes have been taken over, it is simple,. Farms build ranches. I was the first Director, Nigerian Army Farms and Ranches. Our animals are in ranches; we built pastures for them and then they eat. In fact, it is when you even keep them within pastures that you make more money.”

Regarding ordinary herders with a little flock who cannot afford to build ranches, the CDS said: “We can build ranches for them. Remember, in the 60s, they (farmers) used to pay taxes on animals. We don’t do that anymore. Government can raise funds and build farm ranches for them; build water bodies, build dams and grassland for them. It is a very simple issue; the North is blessed with a large landmass. We have a number of dams. Let’s go to those areas; the government will procure those areas and use them. If you go to somebody’s community and you want to use his land for ranching and he says no, leave him and go to another community. He will come and beg you because he will need your meat; he will have to eat. We have to look at this thing decisively and be dispassionate about it. If we do that, I can bet that these farmers-herders clashes will stop immediately.”

In April 2019, as the Managing Director of the Nigerian Army Farms and Ranches Limited (NAFARL), the General had canvassed the same position. Speaking on the push by the military to establish cattle ranches to be set up across the country, Musa had said: “Starting with Abuja, we want this to be a pilot for the ranches. And Abuja being the FCT, it’s easier for everyone to come around and see that ranching is possible, and is an alternative. Ranching provides an alternative where you have the pasture, well-groomed grass that is rich, so the animals will feed better. They don’t have to travel long distances, and since you’re going to keep them in an enclosed area and cater for them, there’s no need for them to run into anybody’s farm. So, you will find your animals will be very healthy, because you have veterinary doctors to look after them, and they are also well-fed, well cared-for, according to international standards.”

To be sure, General Musa’s observations are correct. Time and again, we have frowned on the pernicious practice of open grazing which has over the years provided a cover for terrorists to assault, kill, rob and displace countless numbers of Nigerians from their ancestral lands. There is no logic, data or science in support of the kind of grazing that nomadic herdsmen have insisted on for ages and shed innocent blood to perpetuate without as much as a whimper from the Nigerian state. In this regard, what makes General Musa’s submissions particularly apt and soul-lifting is that certain members of Nigeria’s military and political leadership have always sought to justify open grazing and the attendant atrocities, describing the murderous onslaughts on farmers by herders as mere clashes caused by the latter in not giving a right of way to the former’s sacred cows.

In October 2018, the then Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, was quoted as saying that locomotives on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line could not run faster than 90 kilometres per hour because the ministry wanted to prevent the death of cows. Speaking on the problems facing the rail system in the country at a forum in Abuja, the minister reportedly said: “The reason we want to go back to narrow gauge is that between Lagos and Kano, we have 30 million tonnes of cargo…We are doing 90km/h with Abuja to Kaduna. The reason we are doing 90km/h is because there are cows everywhere, and we don’t want to kill cows. The other day, they said ‘You people should replace the cows you killed.’ From that day, I have said let us maintain the 90km/h; at 120km/h, you get to Kaduna in one hour. You can work in Kaduna and live in Abuja.”

It is quite depressing that since Amaechi’s statement confirming the Federal Government’s diffident approach, nothing much has changed. As we said in previous editorials, elsewhere in the world, cattle are sequestered in ranches and their full potentialities in meat, milk, and leather, among others, harnessed for the national good, but Nigeria’s cows seem to be above the law. On various occasions, we noted that, on the average, cows reared in ranches weigh a tonne, unlike the nomadic species that weigh at best a grudging 250 kilogrammes. We have seen no reason to change our position that ranched cattle are better fed and better cared for; that they fare better on the market and yield returns that would be completely impossible, even unthinkable, in the nomadic tradition. The benefits of ranching are substantial, among them the opportunity to address one of the major problems facing the country. Apart from curbing the pretext for the ceaseless bloodshed on the land, it also provides an opportunity to maximise profit from investments in the cattle business and as General Musa suggested, there is nothing stopping the government from investing in ranching and causing cattle farmers to pay tax for using the facilities.

We endorse General Musa’s call for the embrace of ranching across the country. It is the right thing to do. It is a vital part of the restructuring that Nigeria desperately needs to join the community of civilised entities. It must be done without delay.

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