The FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has just announced the suspension of open-grazing of cattle as part of his pledge to reestablish Abuja’s status as the Federal Capital Territory.

Putting Abuja on the global map has been a goal of several earlier initiatives.

Animal poo has been dumped in every area of the city, creating an offensive scent and an unsightly sight that attracts flies and poses a health danger to the people who live there.

It is impossible to overstate the risks associated with unfettered open grazing everywhere, not only in the Federal Capital Territory.

According to the the media, previous Chairman of the Senate Committee on the FCT, Dino Melaye, once ordered the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Mohammed Bello, to slaughter cows that were spotted in the city’s central business district.

Melaye pointed out that the herdsmen in the Abuja city have kept moving their cattle despite multiple warnings from authorities.

Although we are aware that you have issued directives banning Fulani herders moving their cattle across the city centre, the Senate as an institution is not comfortable with the way in which they continue to do so.

Get your knives ready and have your men slaughter any cows they come across in the capital, or herders caught in the city will be fined N50,000 per cow. Melaye emphasised that this directive must be followed.

Despite the former Kogi Senator and others’ best efforts, open grazing in the FCT continues.

But now Wike has accepted the challenge.

Hours after taking office, he vowed, “I will step on toes, the big and mighty; I will step on your toes if you are doing something wrong,” ordering herders to relocate their cattle to pastures outside the city because they were no longer permitted to graze on the grasses used to enhance the city’s aesthetics.

The question now is how the Minister plans to force the ranchers out of the city centre without enacting safeguards that would protect their ability to carry on lawful economic activity and support their families.

And experts say it would make things as bad as they were when Abuja banned Okada, street hawking, and the demolition of shops without compensating those who lost their livelihoods.

It’s analogous to doing away with gas tax rebates without talking to anyone or preparing for the consequences.

A concerned individual has noted that it may be extremely difficult for the incoming FCT Administration to prevent herdsmen from moving their cows around the FCT without extensive planning and consultation with the relevant parties.

When discussing these matters last weekend, the Minister took a more nuanced approach.

We can’t have cows in the city, therefore we’ll have to talk to the herders about how to put an end to open grazing,” Wike explained.

Since the grasses are located beyond the city limits, their location is acceptable. To improve the city’s appearance, grass was planted. They wouldn’t eat something like that. hence, we shall deliberate…”

Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) National President Baba Othman Ngelzarma told DAILY POST that he and his organisation are eager to meet with the FCT Minister to discuss some of their issues, including the large, ineffective grazing reserves.

The minister has promised to consult the ranchers before making any final decisions. He wouldn’t do anything that would cause someone to later claim they were ignored.

This is the ideal state of affairs, then. We are aware that Abuja is a city and that cows are not permitted to freely roam the streets. This is a huge embarrassment. Everyone here is a civilised adult.

We had several conversations on this during the time of the previous Minister. There was an understanding that no cows would be allowed to roam the downtown area. They are unable to relocate centrally because farmers have occupied all of the available grazing lands, but they are free to do so in the sahel.

Here in Abuja, farmers have occupied grazing reserves. We need someone with Wike’s demeanour to step in and finally resolve this.

Before you can stop these guys from roaming freely, you need to develop the roughly four grazing reserves we have here in Abuja.

Since the Federal Capital was relocated there, the city of Abuja was turned into a grazing reserve. However, this does not give them the legal right to leave the city proper, which is the Federal Capital Territory and the source of every Nigerian’s pride.

This is what we agreed to with the outgoing minister. However, they are free to roam rural areas despite the fact that grazing reserves have been encroached upon by farmers and remain undeveloped and grassy.

To put it another way, “we know that Wike is a gentle man and that he understands the dynamics, and that this will give us the opportunity for the grazing reserves to be developed, so we want to have interaction with Wike himself.”

And we have faith that Wike will create them. Our grazing grounds will be recovered and improved by him. We really want to talk to him. We’d like to talk to him about strategies for locating issues like this. We are aware of how inappropriate it is for cows to be free in the city.

But keep in mind that not all city cows are owned by local pastoralists. Even though some of these cows belong to wealthy city residents who have hired pastoralists to care for them, the fact remains that they have no business being free-range in the heart of the city.

However, pastoralists must be taken into account due to the undeveloped nature of the grazing reserves. They have designated grazing areas, but the land has not been used for anything else.

There is no available water, grazing land, or other infrastructure. For the purpose of justice and fairness, as well as the welfare of pastoralists, they should be developed.

The phrase “We know Wike” often used. He is the kind of person that will come back and improve our grazing land for us because he is aggressive and has the right attitude for the work. He added, “We are prepared to come and meet him whenever he invites us to sort out this problem once and for all.”

The Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, a sibling organisation to MACBAN, takes a slightly different stance on the free movement of cows in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and other cities across Nigeria.

Saleh Alhassan Kubah, the National Secretary of the group, told our correspondent that the cows can graze freely across the north and that no one can stop them.

He thinks the ex-governor of Rivers State should stop talking about cows and start talking about how to improve the metropolis of Abuja.

It would be pointless, he added, to remove herders from the FCT until the government could provide grazing sites for cattle, and most of the cows in Abuja already belonged to the city’s elites anyhow.

Where can I find pastures in Abuja?” Will they graze within the structure? However, Wike’s absence is not significant. Ortom has came and gone in our midst.

We don’t want to hire Wike because he needs to drink ‘Ogogoro’ [alcoholic drink] every morning before he can function at work.

“What, you haven’t heard that before? As he put it, himself. Let him provide his services to the FCT. We eagerly anticipate his future achievements. I can’t criticise him because he’s working for our party, as you well know.

Our minister is him. That’s why I’m not going to go to war with our pastor. Since there is nowhere for the animals to graze in Abuja, this is of little importance.

He’ll figure up a method to get the elite’s cattle, which is why you see them all over the place. Wike doesn’t deserve to hear from us. Let him handle the huge, deserted structures.

Allow him to amass tax revenue from unoccupied properties. You should let him build the city. The Gwari people, a native population, have been neglected for too long; let him help them.

Ikwerre by birth and raised in Port Harcourt. He’s familiar with Port Harcourt customs. If the Gwari give him just 10% of the behaviour of the Ikwerre in Port Harcourt, he will be able to handle them. Let him build up the outlying settlements and provide services to them. Strength is fleeting.

Whatever the case may be, he’ll be gone very soon. We can’t even talk to him. Nothing we tell him will be fresh to him. He needs to be the centre of attention. Do you know if there is any pasture near the Villa?

“Or is it the sight of cows that bothers people so much?” Aren’t cows what make the Northern landscape so picturesque? Is it not incongruous that you want to eat cows yet have no interest in seeing them?

What you’ll witness is a catastrophe brought on by the spirits of the land if there are no cows in the northern geography. Because the spirits require the cows to move about, the ground will be unstable. It’s because of the way they live in the world.

He can’t herd the cows away from him. Who will be responsible for removing the cows from the northern territory? They are immune to pursuit. Nothing is going to happen.

Let him cancel the FCT land contracts; there’s no use in extending their deadline. I assumed he would immediately revoke them.

No grazing land is allocated for the Federal Capital Territory or the AMAC local council in the Abuja development plan.

Let him deal with Abuja’s security problems. We are not, and never will be, any of his concern.

Hajiya Umma Abubakar, director of Animal Husbandry Services at the FCT’s Agricultural and Rural Development, spoke with DAILY POST about the measures in place to provide permanent housing for herders.

She claims that the purpose of creating Grazing Reserves is to give the Fulani people a new home while also allowing them to carry out livestock operations on par with the best in the world.

She claims that preparations have been made to transform Abuja’s four grazing grounds into economic hubs for the city’s herders and the people they support.

According to her, the Federal Capital Territory Minister and the Minister of State for the FCT are enthusiastic about welcoming herders to the nation’s capital.

She said, “The Secretariat has undertaken a comprehensive enumeration exercise to identify the genuine inhabitants that will be compensated to ensure that no member of the community is left out in order to address the issues of compensation and bringing an end to the incessant clashes between the Fulani and the local communities.”

The FCT Administration’s effort to establish grazing reserves is being supported by a joint initiative between the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), known as the Special Agricultural Processing Zone (SAPZ) Project.

“I can assure you that the SAPZ Project is going to address the issue of open grazing because one of its components, which is called Agriculture Transformation Centres (ATC), focuses on building the capacities of all the groups in various aspects of the Livestock value chains, such as the production of high-quality feeds, milk processing, etc.

The centre will have access to water so that farmers can easily fatten their livestock inside of protected areas.

She continued by saying, “The profiling that we are conducting on a regular basis is to help us to identify new and old Fulani herdsmen.” She was referring to the government’s plan to distinguish native herders from migrant herders, many of whom come from outside the nation.

We collaborate with law enforcement and community members who have first-hand knowledge of people who are doing legitimate job and posing no danger to society.

The director stated, “We are working closely with the host communities on the need for peaceful co-existence,” in reference to the persistent resistance from some host groups who are against the establishment of the grazing reserves.

We’ve been working with these communities to raise awareness of how reserve expansion will benefit everyone.

The Fulani are not the only people involved in livestock activity. It’s not just livestock farmers that can benefit from the leftovers of cattle like manures; crop growers may also produce things like livestock feed.

Meeting with all of the interested parties, as the Honourable Minister of the FCT has planned, will provide a boost towards the goal.

The Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory has also promised her full cooperation in carrying out and enhancing the development plans for Abuja’s four grazing reserves.

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