The cattle colony project – the government’s antidote to the herdsmen-farmers crisis that has claimed many lives – will begin immediately. Sixtheen governors have offered five hectares of land each for the project.
The Agriculture Minister Audu Ogbeh broke the news on Monday.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari promised to help the ministry fund the project.
“On the issue of cattle, we have to start immediately; 16 states have given us land to work on. The programme is not going to be cheap. Mr President has personally informed me that if we seek help from him, he will give it to us over and above the budget we have, and when that budget is released I plead with all of you to come on board to work hard to achieve results.
“We are talking of cattle colonies, not ranches, so to speak, where we will provide water, grass, training for herdsmen, cattle breeding and insemination.
“We have to deal with an urgent problem, cattle rearing and the conflicts between farmers and herdsmen, and actually bring it to a halt. I know that some people argue that the culture of open grazing is our culture, but when a culture begins to develop dangerous trends, leading to warfare between people and bloody clashes and death that culture is due for re-examination. If it is harmful, we reform it.
”Nigerians are getting extremely uncomfortable with these killings and we may make political statements and issue palliatives and ask the police and army to go after killers. Let us do our own duty by eliminating the conflict by creating cattle colonies.”
