Ranching Is Reward For Armed Herdsmen, Say Southern, Middle Belt Leaders

The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has advised the federal government against handing over lands to pastoralists, whom they accused of killing and displacing thousands of farmers in their communities.

The forum explained that ranching is a privately-driven economic enterprise, stressing that the government cannot disguise compulsory land acquisition for specific economic actors as a matter of public interest.

The group vowed to resist every attempt to seize community lands under the guise of the new National Livestock Policy introduced by the federal government.

In a statement issued by SMBLF chairman, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, and other leaders of the forum, Dr Bitrus Pogu, president, Middle Belt Forum (MBF); Senator John Azuta-Mbata, president-general, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide and Ambassador Godknows Igali, national chairman, PANDEF, said it stands firmly with the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), which had already rejected the scheme.

According to the statement, “it is alarmed by the audacious attempt by the federal government to take over lands belonging to ethnic communities in the Middle Belt under a spurious pilot scheme being introduced in the name of a New National Livestock Policy”.

“Let us be clear: The SMBLF is not opposed to modern livestock production, ranching or the development of the livestock value chain. What we reject is the opaque, coercive and discriminatory manner in which this policy is being pursued to the exclusive advantage of nomadic Fulani herdsmen,” it said.

The forum stated further, “it is striking that this experiment is being concentrated almost entirely in the Middle Belt, despite the vast expanses of sparsely populated and unused land available in many parts of the far North, where Fulani Emirs dominate most of the lands”.

“The scheme is being presented as a pilot, but if it is not firmly opposed by the communities whose lands are being short-changed, it will inevitably be expanded to other parts of the country, including the Southern States.”

Olaitan added, “The SMBLF deeply suspects that the true aim of this policy is the creation of permanent settlement zones for nomadic Fulani herdsmen, whose violent activities over the years have contributed to the capture and occupation of thousands of square kilometres of land across the Middle Belt and even parts of Southern states.”

Olaitan lamented that “apart from the genocide they have been accused of carrying out in the Middle Belt, they have rendered millions homeless. They cannot be handed the lands of their victims as a reward for their heinous crimes.”

The statement also noted, “It is also a matter of record that some of these nomadic pastoralists are not Nigerian citizens. Any policy that ignores these realities while allocating vast ancestral lands to them under state protection is unacceptable to the indigenous people of the Middle Belt and the South.”

“We have seen similar attempts before under different names, including the rejected RUGA and Cattle Colony proposals, which Nigerians resisted because of their implications for land ownership and demographic restructuring. The SMBLF will not accept such a policy.”

“We warn the Federal Government that the Middle Belt and the South are not dumping grounds for controversial land policies. Our lands belong to our communities that depend on them for farming, homes, livelihoods and survival,” the forum added.