The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has declared its support for the decision taken by the 17 Southern Governors banning open grazing of cattle across the states.
The ACF, in a statement on Monday by its chairman Audu Ogbeh, also called for restrictive measures against the movement of cattles from neighboring countries.
“The ACF does not see any reason to object to a decision taken in the best interest of all.
“The fact of the matter is that the crisis emanates from the belief by most herdsmen that they are free to enter any farm, eat up the crops and rape or kill any one raising objections. Nobody or society can accept that.
“The current high price of garri is one obvious reason of this behavior. Few cassava farms can grow to maturity or be harvested by the farmers. So food security is already being threatened.
“There is, however, the need to advise the governors in all states not to think that merely banning open grazing will end the crisis.
“The bulk of the violent herders are the ones marching in from neighboring African countries in large numbers, thousands at a time and showing no regards to boundaries whether State or regional. They have to be stopped.”
The Chairman advised the government to adopt the Ganduje formula to stop the influx of cattles from West African countries to Nigeria.
He urged the government to seek for the amendment of the ECOWAS protocol regarding the free movement of livestock without permits.
“Therefore the Ganduje formula must be adopted to stop the entry into Nigeria of cattle from West Africa.
“The solution is for Nigeria to seek an amendment to Article 3 of the ECOWAS protocol especially as regards the free movement of cattle and other livestock without special permits.
“If this is done, we have over 5m.hectatres of land in old grazing reserves left, enough to accommodate over 40 million cows if well grassed and watered,” he said.
Ogbe urged the Northern governors to immediately look into this and see the viability, adding that within those spaces, ranches can be developed for lease to Nigerian herders so that this matter can be brought to an end.
“”Thereafter any herders found roaming cañ be penalized.
“Our ECOWAS neighbours can find ways to deal with their own issues the way they seem fit.
“We can seek support from AfDB, the World Bank EU or the Kuwait Fund or any source willing to support us in resolving this problem.
“Hurling abuses, trading suspicion and threatening warfare as is currently the trend will only produce grief and disaster,” Ogbeh said.
