By Uche Mbah
All South east Governors, Governor Ortom of Benue state, Darius Ishiaku of Taraba state, and the Ondo state Governor have sworn that they will not allow the federal government to establish Ruga Cattle ranches in their states, saying that it is the first step to Fulanization.
The immediate past Minister for agriculture, Audu Ogbe, had informed the Nation of President Buhari’s approval of the Ruga settlements of Fulani in all states of the Federation, with the pilot scheme in 21 states. This was just before the winding down of the last administration.
“We are going to build settlements where herders will live, grow their cattle and produce milk. The milk will be bought by a milking parlor thus preventing their wives from moving around with milk. This is especially to avert any conflict between the herders and the farmers,” the former Minister had said.
The Federal government has made up its mind to implement the program. On Tuesday, the Presidency announced that it is going to be spread out within five years, saying that such establishments will end the activities of herdsmen who regularly clash with farmers.
Buhari has in recent times been singing a new song: “we are going to find solution to farmers herders clash”.
The Fulanis had rejected cattle colony and opted for open grazing. It therefore is surprising that suddenly they have settled for Ruga settlements, which are cattle colonies by another name.
Only recently, Miyeti Allah was said to have threatened the South east with invasion if they do not allow them to form vigilante groups.
Meanwhile, the Federal government has set up mechanisms to market the idea in various fora.
The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammed Umar, for example,has insisted that the Ruga settlements would attract investors to Nigeria.
“The Ruga settlement is one of the very important things being done by the ministry and it is one of the best things that can happen not only to Nigeria but to most of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It is a concept that we developed to deal with internal security,” he had said in Abuja, claiming that many states are ecstatic about it.
“We felt that to do away with herders-farmers’ conflict, we need to settle our nomads and those who breed animals. We want to put them in a place that has been developed as a settlement, where we provide water for their animals, pasture, schools for their children, security, aggro-rangers, etc. We also felt that we need to develop cattle markets whereby you don’t need to be transporting animals through very long distances. We will also bring in investors that will set up modern centers where cattle breeders can slaughter their animals. When we do that, a lot of other things will come up,” he said.
