Creation of Ministry of Livestock Development needless

 

“To enable Nigeria to finally take advantage of livestock farming, we have seen the solution and opportunity for this adversity that has plagued us over the years and I believe the prosperity is here in our hands.” – President Bola Tinubu while announcing the creation of Federal Ministry of Livestock Development on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.

Introduction

On Tuesday, July 9, 2024, President Bola Tinubu announced the creation of Federal Ministry of Livestock Development. Following the approval, he said the Federal Government is fully prepared to cover the cost of acquiring lands to ensure the peaceful co-existence of pastoralists and farmers. This came as he inaugurated the Renewed Hope livestock reform implementation committee at the State House, Abuja. While President Tinubu will chair the committee, a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega, is the deputy chairman. The committee is expected to propose recommendations aimed at fostering a peaceful co-existence between herders and farmers, ensuring the security and economic well-being of Nigerians.

The PUNCH of July 9, 2024 (online edition) reported that on September 14, 2023, the National Livestock Reforms Committee recommended that Tinubu create a “Ministry of Livestock Resources” to, among other deliverables, reduce the decades-long gory conflict between farmers and nomadic cattle herders nationwide. Former Kano State Governor and Chairman of the All Progressives Congress Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, disclosed this to State House Correspondents shortly after he led the committee in an audience with the President at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja. It formed part of 21 recommendations captured in a document submitted to the President to enhance the Federal Government’s holistic response to the lingering cases of bloodshed.

The document spelt details of the proposed solutions where the committee advocated a reform agenda examining conflict mitigation and resource management. “This agenda should include the establishment and resuscitation of grazing reserves as suggested by many experts and well-meaning Nigerians and other methods of land utilisation.  Create the Ministry of Livestock Resources in line with practice in many other West African countries. In the alternative, Federal and State Governments should expand the scope of existing Departments of Livestock Production to address the broader needs of the industry,” it read.

Previous efforts to resolve Herders versus Farmers conflict

There is no gainsaying the fact that pastoralists ad farmers’ conflicts have a long history but became most pronounced under the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. In the Kaduna, Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa and Taraba axis alone hundreds if not thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced from their ancestral lands and homes as a result of this lingering crisis. The creation of the ministry is the latest attempt by the Nigerian government to address the decades-long conflict between herders and farmers over access to land, pasture and water.

In the past, previous governments have reeled out a raft of measures including reforestation, Great Green Wall, Building of Dams for irrigation, importation of grass, creation of grazing routes, the highly controversial Rural Grazing Area (RUGA), Cattle Colony and an 82-page National Livestock Transformation Plan (2019 – 2028). According to International Crisis Group, “In 2019, Nigerian authorities launched a ten-year National Livestock Transformation Plan to curtail the movement of cattle, boost livestock production and quell the country’s lethal herder-farmer conflict. But inadequate political leadership, delays, funding uncertainties and a lack of expertise could derail the project. COVID-19 has exacerbated the challenges.” It is believed that if the NLTP can be overhauled, it still provides the best roadmap and blueprint to resolving the pastoralist and farmers age-long conflict.

Why creating Ministry of Livestock Development may not resolve the conflict

What is the definition of livestock, according to the Britannica online dictionary, livestock includes both beef and dairy cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, mules, asses, buffalo, and camels; the raising of birds commercially for meat or eggs (i.e., chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, and squabs) is treated separately. This means that not all animals are covered by livestock. Poultry farming and fisheries are exempted. It just doesn’t make much sense to treat only a section of the animal preferentially.

Secondly, there is already a Department in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture that is in charge of livestock. Why not strengthen that Department to make it more efficient and functional? If that department is well resourced, and is given the mandate to implement the National Livestock Transformation Plan, with appropriate Key Performance Indicators and adequate funding, it should be able to deliver.

Thirdly, President Tinubu already has a bloated cabinet with about 34 ministries and 48 Ministers. The performance of these ministers have been largely lackluster in the last one year of their being in office. In the face of dwindling economic resources, inability to resolve the new national minimum wage for workers, huge debt portfolio and the presidential order to reduce the Departments and Agencies in line with the Steve Oronsaye report, it is baffling that the president will deem it fit to establish additional ministry. This new ministry may well have two minsters which will then bring the number of the cabinet to 50!

The other issue here is that creating a new ministry mid-year will present funding challenging for proper take off. This is because the ministry was not captured in the 2024 FG budget. The new ministry will need office space, full complement of staff, equipment, and office furniture. Thus proper take off of the new ministry may not be until next year. Furthermore, the new bureaucracy being created will substantially increase the overhead and cost of running this government. I don’t think there will be value for money creating this new ministry. 

Furthermore, it is doubtful if the state governors are carried along in the FG plan. Interestingly, the FG has no square meter of land anywhere in Nigeria. By virtue of the 1978 Land Use Act, all lands are vested in the state governor who holds it in trust for the people. Part of the challenge NLTP faced under ex-President Buhari was the unwillingness of most of the southern states governors to give part of their state’s land for the take off of ranching.  Resuscitating the already obliterated grazing routes of the ‘60s in 2024 will be problematic as the land in question may have been used for residential housing or building purposes having been parceled out to beneficiaries. I do hope the plan of the federal government to acquire land from the state will yield positive results.

If the federal government is establishing a new ministry with the aim of resolving farmers – herders conflict, what is the president doing to support other forms of animal husbandry in particular rabittry, poultry and fisheries. Farmers in these sectors too needs to be encouraged to contribute meaningfully to the food security agenda of the Tinubu Administration.  I am of the considered view that if the federal government of Nigeria can get the buy-in of the sub-national government viz. States and Local Governments, it will achieve greater success in its food security agenda.

Conclusion

I understand the burning desire of President Tinubu to resolve the conundrum surrounding the herders – farmers conflict in Nigeria. However, creating additional layer of bureaucracy will not solve the lingering and protracted challenge. FG should try to fashion a bottom-up approach to resolving this age-long dispute and not vice versa. Reforestation of the deforested northern part of Nigeria and making the herders to embrace modern techniques of livestock farming will yield better result than just creating additional ministry.

Jide Ojo is a Development Consultant, Author, columnist and Public Affairs Analyst.