• Southern Kaduna people oppose action
• Say it will heighten attacks by Fulani herdsmen

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Solomon Dalung, has urged support for Federal Government’s policy on grazing reserve and ranches across Nigeria, which he said, was geared towards finding lasting solution to incessant clashes between herdsmen and local farmers.

The minister, who disclosed this in an interview with journalists in Kaduna at the weekend, said it was surprising that Plateau, Benue and Taraba states were in opposition to the programme.

He noted that the crisis had led to loss of lives, paralysing of economic activities and destruction of property.According to him, those opposing the laudable programme are brainwashing the unsuspecting public to believe that lands belonging to local communities are going to be grabbed and handed over to the so-called “Fulani herdsmen”, saying this is far from the truth. He also disputed claims that only Fulani are nomadic herdsmen.

Dalung said that findings carried out by the Federal Government before coming out with the programme revealed that there is no country in the world today making headway in animal husbandry that relies on nomadic mode of cattle rearing.

Citing United States (U.S.) and Brazil as examples, he said their animal population far-outstripped that of Nigeria because they have many reserves and ranches and nomadic cattle rearing is no longer in practice.

Meanwhile, the people of Southern Kaduna, under the aegis of Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), have faulted the decision by the Kaduna State government to site grazing reserves in their communities, saying it would further heighten the attack by Fulani herdsmen in the area.

President of the group, Mr. Solomon Musa who lamented over the past bloody attacks by the Fulani herdsmen leading to scores of killings in many communities, said: “We are also alarmed by the hasty manner the Kaduna State government donated 5,000 hectares of land to the proposed Federal Government grazing reserves. This is in addition to the suspicious reactivation of about 17 grazing reserves, including moribund ones in the state.

“We ordinarily would have wholeheartedly been in support of any scheme capable of halting the unwarranted attacks on our people by suspected herdsmen and their accomplices, but the idea of bringing in the suspected aggressors to sit right in the midst of their victims would be viewed as an official encouragement for continued assault on our people.”

The minister, who further stated that under the programme, many jobs would be generated through employment of agronomists, horticulturists and other professionals, wondered why states whose citizens would benefit from this employment generation scheme should be opposing the initiative.

He equally dismissed the insinuation that lands would be seized from local people and handed over to herdsmen, saying it is government that will establish the facilities and make it available to whoever has animals.

He, therefore, warned against politicisation of the issue or reading religious or ethnic meaning to a purely patriotic initiative meant to find permanent solution to a problem that has been causing social tension, violence and threat to national peace and security.

“I am hopeful that a lot of people will take to cattle rearing as occupation, thereby boosting their incomes when the programme comes upstream since the harrowing practice of trekking long distances to find pastures for their animals would have been removed”, Dalung further said.