Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State on Thursday inaugurated a 13-man committee on the establishment of RUGA settlement in Kano to curb farmers/herdsmen clashes.
Ganduje, who inaugurated the committee at the Government House, Kano, said that settling the herdsmen in one place would improve their economic activities and curb crises.
He said that the settlement would be designed in such a way that it would expand the economic base of the state.
He said that some of the crises continued because of the types of cattle coming from West African countries were too large to be accommodated by any grasing route.
” One cannot accommodate or stop the herdsmen and their cattle from entering the country beacuse of the Economic Community of African States (ECOWAS) protocol.
”The whole system is more of socio- cultural than socio-economic and it has to change to socio-economic otherwise it will continue to be uneconomic venture,” he said.
Ganduje said that the terms of reference of the committee included:
“To identify areas and location for the establishment of milk market for the Fulani women with order investors on public private partnership to easily sell their products.
“To identify areas suitable for the establishment of RUGA settlement and improvement of living condition of nomadic cattle rearers.
“To produce a whole master plan for the establishment of RUGA settlement and to also determine the type of social services and infrastructure, such as hospital, water, schools, market and veterinary clinics,” he said.
The governor said that the project would be carried out in collaboration with the Islamic Development Bank.
The committee, which has representatives from all security agencies, was given three weeks to submit its report.
Earlier, the chairman of the committee, Dr Jubrila Mohammad, had thanked the governor for the confidence reposed on them and promised to complete the assignment within the time frame.
