A wave of heated debate swept through the Nigerian Senate on Wednesday as Senator Titus Zam’s Bill for an Act to establish National Animal Husbandry and Ranches Commission for the regulation, management, preservation, and control of ranches throughout Nigeria; and for connected purposes, 2024’, passed for second reading.
In his debate, the Senator representing Benue North-West Senatorial District argued that the increasingly violent conflicts that arise from pastoralist-farmer interaction in Nigeria have taken on a warlike dimension.
He said the state cannot afford to look on while the country burns into ashes as a result of violent clashes between sedentary farmers and nomadic herders. “As stakeholders in the Nigeria project and elected representatives of the people, doing so would amount to abdication of our statutory and leadership responsibilities,” the senator noted.
He added that every effort was laced with manoeuvres that spoke to our ethnic and political biases or sentiments, thus being resisted by the people. “This 10th Senate has a date with history. We must rise in one accord to sort out this problem of herder-farmer violent conflicts that would if allowed to linger longer, consume even more lives and properties than the civil war of 1967–1970. 1967–1970. Therefore, the senator pleaded that now is the time to permanently stop the endless cycle of attacks and counterattacks by our people and their external “collaborators”.
‘The politics of ranches’
The proposal included the establishment of ranches in the pastoralist state of origin, without imposing them on other states or communities that do not have pastoralists as citizens. It also seeks to address critical issues in the livestock business in a way that promotes peaceful coexistence. While experts lauded the bill for addressing one of the most heated debates in the country, some Senators from the North opposed it.
Senator Danjuma Goje said the bill is discriminatory as it restricts herders to a particular geographical location. Senator Sulaiman Abdulrahman-Kawu believes the proposal would violate the constitutional rights of the herders, arguing that it would compound the problems of the herders and the farmers. Corroborating the position of Senator Goje and Kawu was Senator Adamu Aliero, who also contended that any law that would restrict the movement of any Nigerian and his property would be a breach of Section 41 of the constitution.
‘A rowdy session’
The bill sparked debate among senators, especially between those who supported and opposed it. The Senate Committees on Agriculture, Trade, and Investment, Judiciary, and Legal Matters forwarded the bill for more legislative input within the next four weeks, but the emotion it generated revealed a deeper national issue: the danger of echo chambers in public discourse. Analysts have argued that ranching is one of the country’s most divisive issues. As a case in point, they cited the controversies that surrounded former President Muhammadu Buhari’s RUGA initiative, asserting that the plan’s failure stemmed from the people’s inability to listen to and understand one another in such a charged and fraught national issue.
‘The RUGA danger’
As the government of former President Muhammadu Buhari faced stiff opposition over its perceived indifference to the frequent farmers-herders clashes, it came up with an idea it hoped would nip the crisis in the bud. Regrettably, Nigerians greeted the Rural Gracing Area (RUGA) settlements with outrage and protest. On May 21, 2019, Audu Ogbeh, then minister of agriculture, told Nigerians, “Just 10 days ago, President Muhammadu Buhari approved a program called the RUGA settlement.”
That announcement quickly pitted Nigerians against one other, with critics saying the initiative was a clandestine plot to snatch lands from farmers. Nigerians, primarily from the middle belt and southern parts of the country, vehemently rejected the scheme, forcing the government to yield to public pressure. Experts believed that proper consultation with critical stakeholders could have successfully navigated the scheme through public opinion hurdles. They noted that Senator Zam’s bill is timely given that the country is just entering planting season, which is usually the time of year when clashes between pastoralists and sedentary farmers are always on the increase.
