A former member of the House of Representatives for Oron/Okobo/UrueOffiong-Oruko/Udung Uko/Mbo Federal Constituency on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State, Peter Umoh, has urged President Mohammadu Buhari to encourage state ownership of ranches to tackle farmers’/ herders clashes.
He said ownership of ranches by state governments would effectively provide a solution to the seemingly recurring clashes between farmers and herders than the Buhari administration system of land grabbing from the various states for the purpose of ranching.
Umoh, a one- time speaker of the state House of Assembly stated these on Sunday, while fielding questions from newsmen in Uyo, the state capital against the backdrop of the incessant farmers’/herders crises in some parts of the country.
The former member of the 1988/89 Constituent Assembly, argued that cattle rearing is a private business and as a business, people should be encouraged to buy land and enclose it to stop nomadism.
“My analysis of the situation in the south -west is that today, it is happening in the south-west; no one knows when it will explode in the south-east and in the southsouth or Middle Belt because the Fulani are everywhere.
“They may not be many, but they have their own agenda, So, it’s not a south- west matter, it should be every Nigerian’s matter. My appeal is that Mr. President should by his action show that he is not as he is perceived by so many Nigerians that he is closing his eyes against what the Fulani are doing to other fellow Nigerians.
“The ranching system should not have been the way the President had taken it; to grab land from various states and given it to them. No because cattle rearing is business. Let the people who want to do the business buy land and then enclose it so that this nomadism will stop.
“That is what the President should have done and I plead with him to do it; not just trying to impose it on each state by grabbing their lands.
“The President can encourage each state of the federation to establish its own ranch. Assuming the government of Akwa Ibom State uses the money from the federation account to establish her own ranch, employs her people. Think of this; it is one of the ways out of the farmers’/ herders crisis in Nigeria,” Umoh said.
The PDP stalwart called for the close monitoring of the nation’s borders to prevent illegal migrants coming into the country to cause trouble. He said most of the herders who kill, maim and destroy at will are not Nigerians, but illegal migrants hired for that purpose, adding that the fact that they are not Nigerians explains their heartlessness.