Governors of the 19 Northern States have adopted the Federal Government’s National Livestock Transformation Plan.
The governors also resolved to implement the entire roadmap of the plan in all member-states.
They made the resolution during an emergency meeting of the Northern Governors Forum which held on Thursday at the Government House in Kaduna State.
Chairman of the forum and Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, disclosed this to reporters at the end of the meeting which lasted several hours.
Governor Lalong explained that the forum adopted the plan with hopes that it would address both economic and security challenges posed by the incessant conflicts between herders and farmers in the country.
He also called on state governments that were not included in the pilot scheme of the plan to key into it.
The increasing clashes between farmers and herders have recently become worrisome especially in wetland areas of the middle belt, north-central, and southern part of the country.
Violent conflicts between the two parties who are prominent stakeholders in the country’s agricultural sector have escalated in recent times and spreading southwards, thereby threatening Nigeria’s security and stability.
As part of the Federal Government efforts to tackling the crisis, the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, inaugurated the National Livestock Transformation Plan On Tuesday at the Gongoshi Grazing Reserve in Mayo-Belwa Local Government Area of Adamawa State.
The government believes the plan, which is to be implemented in seven pilot states of Adamawa, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, Taraba and Zamfara, will develop Nigeria’s livestock sector and also reduce the incessant conflicts between herders and farmers.
With the launching of the programme in Adamawa, the governors at Thursday’s meeting noted that that the stage is set for all northern states to key into it.
Although the resolution of the meeting sounded unanimous, Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, represented by his deputy, Benson Abounu, said his state would only implement the plan if its conforms with the Benue laws on ranching of animals and the anti-open grazing laws.
