Cattle rearing suddenly became a national business with no known revenue to the country.

Yankiss:
By Clarius Ugwuoha
RIGHTLY or unfairly, the PMB government lately seemed entangled with Myetti Allah and herdsmen as their welfare seem uppermost in the government’s agenda.

Nigerians were used to herdsmen grazing their cattle peacefully along various grass-paths. Unknown was the phenomenon of gun-toting herders menacing farmers, kidnapping and killing and raping women. What gave rise to this frightening transformation is not certain.

As their atrocities escalated, there were widespread speculations, given credence by government sources, that these were foreign mercenaries masquerading as herdsmen. They were from neighbouring countries and not the regular herdsmen we were used to, it was alleged.

The whole country woke up to the Ruga controversy, nonetheless. A government that once dismissed the militant herdsmen as aliens from Niger, Mali and others, suddenly came with the ‘brilliant’ idea of resettling them in all states of the federation – a way to end the herders-farmers clashes! This implausible proposition was going to be fully funded with the tax-payers’ money. Cattle rearing suddenly became a national business with no known revenue to the country. The unprecedented hoopla that attended this anomalous proposition made the government to suspend the programme, while some Northern states like Kano took up the task of resettling their ‘kinsmen’.

Never has the unity of Nigeria been so seriously threatened. Nigeria is annexed by an army of occupation made intractable by government apathy. It did not need visitations from potentates and letters from OBJ to drum home to the Buhari government that a cataclysm is afoot if the raging herdsmen are not reined in momentously. Nigeria cannot survive the pockets of armed insurrections if sustained. There are killings everywhere. In Zamfara, Katsina and Borno. Killings in Edo, Ogun and Enugu states. Killings in the Middle Belt and other parts of the country. Amid this chaos and carnage is the Rural Grazing scheme which only fueled allegations of a Fulanisation agenda. Instead of ebbing, it only keyed up the tempo of the already excited polity.

RUGA is a recipe for balkanisation of the country if not abrogated entirely or redefined for the core North. It is not the solution to armed herdsmen menace. They operate with impunity and a sense of invincibility which the government’s nonchalance suggests complicity. We must first, before resettling them in the core North or anywhere, confirm their nationality, disarm and bring them to orderly civil comport. There is no rationale in resettling non-Nigerians even in Kano or anywhere. Non-documented immigrants ought not to stretch our resources. It is untenable. This is not allowed to happen anywhere in the world. Where nationality isn’t Nigerian or proven, these hoodlums ought to be expelled by instrument of the Nigerian armed forces.

The indigenous herdsmen should embrace ranching in the core North. I emphasize the core North because every other part of the country is sensitized and hostile to herdsmen due to the activities of the bad eggs among them and due, of course, to fears of Fulani expansionist agenda. Any governor outside the core North drumming for Ruga is insincere, being political and has no backing back home. Ruga should be politically rested. It came at the wrong time, it is like a stifling mask for someone already gasping for breath.

The government is not helping the Fulani sub-ethnic nation by direct or indirect complicity in their ill-advised altercation with almost all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. That one of theirs is in power today doesn’t make them owners of Nigeria. They once lived peacefully with the Hausas in the North. Reports allege bloody confrontations in various states. The current spotlighting of the Fulani nation is due of course to two issues: the activities of bad eggs among them and the complete silence of their elite fueling fears of collusion, does not tell positively of sagacity. It is evidently counterproductive.

The PMB government swore to protect Nigeria and Nigerians. It would be improper to continue to watch the country burn without proper deterrents. All gun-toting militias need to be outlawed, and all trouble-makers prosecuted irrespective of origins, so that Nigerians do not resort to self-help with the attendant cataclysm. A stitch in time saves nine.


https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/07/buhari-and-the-ruga-controversy/?fbclid=IwAR1uuOZBXILvouIeRlm6Ltb6ZLDRKsotaWEYx83q6LVi7jaVx4sFs_2bosY

NwaAmaikpe:




The job of a President is to serve the interest of his people, to protect them and to put their welfare first.
That's what a true President does.

That's exactly what Buhari is doing because to him, his people are the Fulanis, their interest is their cows and their welfare is giving them unhindered access to any farmland they so desire.

He should do as he so desires because like Ukpabi Asika rightly said, "onye ube ya ruru, ya racha".
Buhari should give his kinsmen RUGA afterall he is President.

Who knows, maybe one day we would have an Igbo President who will give Lagos State to the Igbos due to their immense contribution to it's development.

Welcome to the NextLevel.

tstx:
RUGA will happen one way or another. .. I'm a Nigerian, I've been a Nigerian all my life, i know my country.. I know my leaders, I know my people..

..

Femijohn198:
RUGA is the best solution now to this crisis of Fulani herdsmen,lets Nigeria accept it .

Femijohn198:
RUGA is the best solution now to this crisis of Fulani herdsmen,lets Nigeria accept it .

NwaAmaikpe:




The job of a President is to serve the interest of his people, to protect them and to put their welfare first.
That's what a true President does.

That's exactly what Buhari is doing because to him, his people are the Fulanis, their interest is their cows and their welfare is giving them unhindered access to any farmland they so desire.

He should do as he so desires because like Ukpabi Asika rightly said, "onye ube ya ruru, ya racha".
Buhari should give his kinsmen RUGA afterall he is President.

Who knows, maybe one day we would have an Igbo President who will give Lagos State to the Igbos due to their immense contribution to it's development.

Welcome to the NextLevel.

Femijohn198:
RUGA is the best solution now to this crisis of Fulani herdsmen,lets Nigeria accept it .

ItsMeAboki:
I cannot understand the unnecessary uproar from southerners on a proposal that is completely optional; no one is forcing any state government to accept it - as it is many in the south have already rejected it; and so be it - one therefore wonders what seems to be the problem; why the continued complain?

What would be ridiculous is if later the same ppl rejecting it would later point accusing fingers at the president for preferential treatment should they come to realise the benefits of the RUGA project already being enjoyed by northern states willing to embrace it - having allowed blind emotions overrule their common sense.

citizenY:



Its a mindset. As you can see, someone is advocating that beef should not be eaten or even more drastic... Wipe out the Fulani.The objective ... Wipe out.

ItsMeAboki:


Yes indeed!

I just hope FG would go right ahead and pump money into those northern states accepting it and later watch them cry over the development potentials they rejected because of their short sighted bigotry and ethnic bias.

vedaxcool:
This foolish ipob pornographers must think their xenophobic line of reasoning counts where decency counts.

ItsMeAboki:


Yes indeed!

I just hope FG would go right ahead and pump money into those northern states accepting it and later watch them cry over the development potentials they rejected because of their short sighted bigotry and ethnic bias.

Yankiss:


Establishing Ruga in the North with Oil proceeds from the South? Lukatew. For God's sake cattle business is private!!

ItsMeAboki:


Stop that nonsensical rhetoric!
Some of you proclaim education but spout so much ignorance akin to someone you'd expect had probably never seen the walls of a school.

Oil money, oil money and cattle rearing is private business: as if the north is not part of Nigeria or haven't you heard of the numerous private businesses which govt, through specific policies, had directly sponsored or assisted in one way or another; either as subsidies e.g. fertilisers, equipment and technical support to farmers or assistance in form of land, import and tax waivers. etc to industries - among others?

Some of you keep repeating shallow inciting statements made by local tribal champions (who having lost out want remain politically relevant through hate and division) without rational thinking and examination. .

NwaAmaikpe:




The job of a President is to serve the interest of his people, to protect them and to put their welfare first.
That's what a true President does.

That's exactly what Buhari is doing because to him, his people are the Fulanis, their interest is their cows and their welfare is giving them unhindered access to any farmland they so desire.

He should do as he so desires because like Ukpabi Asika rightly said, "onye ube ya ruru, ya racha".
Buhari should give his kinsmen RUGA afterall he is President.

Who knows, maybe one day we would have an Igbo President who will give Lagos State to the Igbos due to their immense contribution to it's development.

Welcome to the NextLevel.

Wallade:


The FG may get away with such expenditure because the president is desperate to implement RUGA in favor of his Fulani folks.

However, there is no excuse for RUGA policies aimed at subsidising livestock rearing business in that magnitude.

The government can create dedicated fund to be managed and disbursed by CBN and commercial banks for farmers into livestock business to access for the purpose of ranching (Southern and Middle belt states) and open grazing (Northern states). The interest rate on the funds can be as little as 5% and the ministry of agriculture can supervise the implementation and deployment by the various recipients.

That is the objective and reasonable way to subsidise livestock rearing business not to condition every Nigerian to operate RUGA especially when no farming business man is open to such primitive business strategy (open grazing) other than the Fulani's.

Yankiss:

Fertilizer is national. Check all these businesses, they are all national. Cattle rearing is private. Government can subsidize some issues but not take up whole sponsorship like acquiring land and building grazing areas. The scale is mammoth. Only commensurate for a national business. If the Government want to make a business out of cattle rearing like in Holland, Brazil, etc, it can do so. Set up a corporation, employ Nigerians, rear cattle and sell the hides and skins to leather factories, the milk to milk industries and the beef to the populace. All as a national business, with revenue and employment opportunity for all irrespective of origins. I do not think any reasonable Nigerian will oppose that.

ItsMeAboki:


Yes indeed!

I just hope FG would go right ahead and pump money into those northern states accepting it and later watch them cry over the development potentials they rejected because of their short sighted bigotry and ethnic bias.

ItsMeAboki:


The herder/farmer crisis has become a national security threat which all had agreed that the way to resolve it was to physically separate the warring parties from coming into contact with one another.

The FG came up with a practical proposal in the form of RUGA, which is entirely optional i.e. not compulsory; yet all hell was let loose - with screaming rejection from southerners.

And so be it; well if the FG should go ahead and implement it's proposal for those willing to accept it; so where is the problem?
BTW, ranching which many are now advocating is not necessarily the best and only option; because even the Europeans and Americans who extensively use it, are now reverting back to free range farming, having discovered the ill effects of such battery produced food; in the case of beef, fatty dairy and meat laden with chemical inject-able growth promoters such as steroids etc, giving rise to heart diseases and cancers.

What call primitive; others in the so called advanced world are trying to preserve, in the form of Free Range Farming.

ItsMeAboki:


Just look at you; is the RUGA proposal not national, for every state of the Federation - only for southern and some middle belt states to reject it?

Are you suggesting that farmers who, get fertilisers, tractors and other farm implements etc, at subsidised rates are not in private business or all Nigerians are farmers and therefore such govt assistance is accessible to all?

What of industries etc which get land, tax and import waivers; are they also not private businesses or do they necessarily operate nationally in every part of the country?

Pls do not allow your emotions overrule your common sense.

Yankiss:
You are not making sense at all. Ruga is for all states of the federation and the beneficiaries are who and who? Are there cattle rearers outside Fulani stock? I am NOT against them. But the scale of Ruga is phenomenal not in the class of providing tractors etc. They can buy land and do their cattle business. It's not a national business. The rearers of cattle are not the owners. The owners are wealthy enough to afford ranches. They are just playing games. We have more immediate issues than cattle business.