By David Onimisi Lawani
The governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has said the government and governors of northern state forum are not bothered about “populist legislation” to stop open grazing, “you can legislate but let us wait and see. And I wish them the best of luck”.
El-Rufai was responding to questions from reporters when he visited the APC national secretariat saying the Northern state governors forum has already taken a position on the open grazing.
He said the northern governors have taken a position and they are implementing it noting ranching is the way to go so as to avoid farmer-herders clashes.
He said: ” The northern state governors forum has already taken a position that open grazing is not a sustainable way of livestock production. And we must move towards ranching.
“But moving towards ranching cannot be done overnight. We have to have a plan, we have to have resources and we have to implement it sensibly. It is not a matter of populist legislation or saying tomorrow this or that. It is not a solution. We have taken a position as northern state governors and we are implementing that.
“And in my state, for instance, we are developing a huge ranch to centralize the herders. And that is the solution, a long time. But can it be done overnight? No”, he said.
He stressed that Kaduna has about 14 ranches and it will cost 10 billion nairas to build a ranch even though the CBN has given the state 7.5 billion for the project.
El-Rufai noted further that what is unhelpful is to politicize the issue adding that the cost implications of building 14 ranches for the state is huge, maintaining that the state will be happy if the federal government can assist for full implementation of the project by converting the 14 reserves to ranches for the state.
“This project we are doing will cost us about 10 billion nairas.
The CBN is supporting us with about a 7.5billion. And it will take about two years to do. We will be settling about 1500 Fulani herders families. And I hope that they will see that there are alternative ways of producing livestock instead of running up and down with cattle going to people’s farms to cause all kinds of problems. We want to solve the problem.
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“What is unhelpful is to politicize the situation and pass legislation that you know that you cannot implement. So, we have taken a position and we are working round the clock to implement that position.
“And these herders emanate from the north and we are going to centralize them. We cannot do it overnight. We need billions of naira.
This is just one ranch that is causing 10 billion. I have 14 grazing reserves in Kaduna state and I will like to convert them into ranching. Do I have 14 times 10 billion nairas? I don’t have.
“If the federal government will give me a hundred and fourteen billion, I will convert the other thirteen into ranches and make sure that nobody comes out with a cow or sheep in Kaduna state because I will have enough ranches to take care of everybody.
That is the solution. You can legislate but let us wait and see. And I wish them the best of luck”, the governor said.
