The Senate on Wednesday, June 5, passed for a second reading a bill that seeks to establish a national agency for the regulation and management of ranches in Nigeria.
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The Bill titled: “A Bill to Establish a National Animal Husbandry and Ranches Commission for the Regulation, management, preservation, and Control of Ranches throughout Nigeria; and for Connected Purposes, 2024” was sponsored by Senator Titus Zam (APC-Benue North-West).
Zam in his lead debate said the Senate is aware of the increasing wave of violent conflicts that erupt from pastoralists and farmers’ interaction in Nigeria.
He said such conflicts have assumed a war-like dimension “with a far-reaching negative impact on the people and country as a whole.”
He argued that as stakeholders in the Nigeria project and elected representatives of the people, the “Senate cannot afford to look on while the country burns into ashes as a result of violent clashes between sedentary farmers and nomadic herders.”
He said that doing so would amount to abdication of our statutory and leadership responsibilities.
He said the menace of farmers and herders crises can easily be cured through a legislative therapy banning open grazing in Nigeria.
Zam lamented that the Nigerian State has continued to pay lip service to the challenge of farmers’ and herders’ altercation without addressing it in concrete terms in line with international best practices of animal husbandry.
He said: “Every effort (was) is laced with maneuvers that speak to our ethnic and political biases or sentiments, thus resisted by the people.
“This 10th Senate has a date with history. We must rise in one accord to sort out this problem of herders-farmers violent conflicts that would if allowed to linger longer, consume even more lives and properties than the civil war of 1967-1970.
“Therefore, now is the time to put a permanent stop to the endless circle of attacks and counterattacks by our people and their external collaborators.
“Now is the time to adopt international best practices in animal husbandry. Now is the time to bring about a law to stop open grazing. It is old fashioned, hazardous, burdensome, and must be discarded.”
He said the Bill proposes ranching as the only viable alternative for cattle breeding in Nigeria and advocates for the urgent need to transition from traditional livestock-keeping methods to modern methods that are safer and healthier for both the herds and the herders.
He said the Bill further proposes that ranches be established in the pastoralists’ state of origin without forcing it upon other states or communities that do not have pastoralists as citizens and that interested parties in livestock business must seek and obtain approvals from their host communities to establish ranches for peaceful co-existence.
Senators Eyinnaya Abaribe, Danjuma Goje, Senator Garba Musa Maidoki, Senator Barau Jibrin, Senator Adamu Aliero, and Kawu Sumaila supported the Bill but objected to a clause in the lead debate which said pastoralists should establish ranches in their state of origin.
According to Aliero, any law that would restrict the movement of any Nigerian person and his property would be a direct breach of Section 41 of the Constitution.
Senate president, however, said that offensive clauses not in line with the constitution should be expunged from the Bill during public hearings and national summit on security already agreed by the Senate.
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