HERDSMEN CRISIS: 36 Governors Agree To End Nomadic Cattle Rearing

The 36 Governors of the Federation have agreed to end the practice of nomadic rearing of cattle in view of its increasing adverse security effects on the country.

The Governors came to this agreement at the 25th virtual meeting of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) held on Wednesday.

They were however silent on the date they plan to put a stop to open grazing and movement of cattle by herders.

In a communique at the end of the meeting, which was made public on Thursday evening by the NGF’s secretariat, the Governors also cautined against ethnic profiling upon being briefed about the posture of the Northern Governors’ Forum (NGF) on the issue by their Chairman and Plateau Governor, Simon Lalong.

It said: “Following an update from governors on the various initiatives taken by State governments to address the rising insecurity in the country due to the activities of herdsmen, members reached a consensus on the need for the country to transition into modern systems of animal husbandry that will replace open, night and underage grazing in the country.

“State governments are encouraged to put in place systems to accelerate the grazing initiative of the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) and ranching in the country.

“The forum respects the right of abode of all Nigerians and strongly condemns criminality and the ethnic profiling of crime in the country in an effort to frame the widespread banditry and the herdersfarmers crisis.

“In the light of the economic and security risks that have arisen from these circumstances, the forum resolved to urgently convene an emergency meeting of all Governors.

“The Chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) and Governor of Plateau State, Rt Hon. Simon Bako Lalong provided an update on steps taken by the Governors of the nineteen (19) Northern States and cautioned against the tagging of ethnic groups based on the misbehavior of a few criminally minded individuals.

“He (Lalong) called on State governors to address this matter head-on in their various states.”

The meeting also dwelt on ways to ensure effective destribution of the coronavirus vaccines when the are available in the country and agreed the health workers should first benefit.