FG replaces controversial RUGA with new scheme, begins camps in six states The Punch
Published 24 July 2021
Two years after the suspension of the controversial Rural Grazing Area scheme in July 2019, the Federal Government has introduced a replacement scheme called the Livestock Intervention Programme to address the lingering farmer-herder crisis across the country.
This comes amid the Federal Government’s intensified efforts to revive colonial-era grazing routes in many states across the country as per the directive by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd).
According to documents from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development sighted by one of our correspondents, the LIP scheme will see the Federal Government establishing eight large herders’ settlements in each of the six pilot states, namely Adamawa, Kwara, Niger, Bauchi, Kaduna and Gombe.
Beyond the ban placed on open grazing of cattle by many states of the federation to curb incessant violent conflict between herders and farmers, some of the state governments have also come up with novel initiatives to forestall the menace in their domains.
The action of the states is guided by the realisation that the establishment of ranches, which both northern and southern governors point to as the way forward, would not come quickly and cheaply and herders must continue with their business pending when ranches are built.
The journey for the replacement of open grazing with ranching in the country actually began in 2018, when the Federal Government launched a 10-year National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) amid constant clashes between herders and farmers that have cost the country thousands of lives and property worth billions of naira.
Nigeria s security crises - five different threats
By Aliyu Tanko
image copyrightAFP
Nigeria is faced with an unprecedented wave of different but overlapping security crises - from kidnapping to extremist insurgencies - almost every corner of the country has been hit by violence and crime.
Audu Bulama Bukarti, a senior analyst on Sahel security at the Tony Blair Institute, says the scale of the insecurity threatens the very fabric of Nigerian society: With every attack, human lives are lost or permanently damaged and faith in democracy and the country is diminishing.
When President Muhammadu Buhari was elected in 2015, he promised to protect citizens from terrorists and criminals. But there are less than two years left of his final term in office and the country is more unstable than it s been in decades.
VON DG: N6 25bn Katsina ranching will end herders/farmers clashes dailytrust.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailytrust.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.