Since Governor Samuel Ortom mooted the idea of banning open grazing in Benue state, there was been stiff opposition from Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACABAN) and sundry groups. From when the bill was sent to the State House of Assembly, to its signing into law, the criticisms against the Anti Open Grazing Law have not abated. In this interactive session with select journalists, including IBRAHEEM MUSA, Governor Ortom insists that the law remains the only panacea to the incessant clash between herdsmen and farmers in the state.
What has been the level of compliance since the Anti Open Grazing law can into being on November 1 this year ?
The law has been complied with. Those who want to do open grazing have found alternative sites outside Benue State to do so while those who are in Benue state, have ranched their cattle, including me. I have three Fulani herdsmen under my employ, two of them are married with children. This is the kind of modern cattle breeding that I seek to bring to Nigeria.
It is not impossible because as I keep saying, if we learnt or borrowed the presidential system of government from America, why can’t we borrow cattle ranching and apply it here too?
I think for cattle rearing, ranching is the best approach globally, even on African soil. Swaziland, Kenya, Tanzania are some countries that are running successful ranches. Our own Mr President who is a Fulani man has learnt to keep his cattle in a ranch. That is all I am saying we should do, so that we can stop all these senseless destruction of lives and property. On the whole, there has been relative calm and the law is being implemented,
Has there been enough awareness and sensitisation about the law to ensure its smooth implementation?
As you are aware, the bill was signed into law on May 22nd, 2017 and we started implementation in November. There was a lot of blackmail and intimidation, falsehood surrounding a bill which was well-intended to give protection to both herders and farmers.
The erroneous impression that was given by some mischief makers is that the bill was meant to chase Fulani herdsmen away from Benue state, which has never been the case. We have not chased any Fulani herdsman away from the state. Creating awareness was one of the issues that came up when we were sensitising people. We have plans to translate the law into Hausa, Tiv, Idoma and Igede and Fulfilde. If you go through the provisions of the law, we have been sensitising and substantially, there has been compliance.
You are asking people to put their cattle and livestock in ranches but the question people have been asking is where are the ranches? Has land been provided for it? How are you tackling this?
As far as we are concerned, cattle or livestock breeding is a business just like any other business. The law does not make provision for ranching of cattle or livestock for owners. It is your responsibility to do so and ours is to accept applications from those who hold permits for a specified time. It is your own initiative to establish how you want your ranch and there are several ways to do that, depending on what you want.
You can either build or put up a fence around your land, as long as the animals are restrained in one place. All we are saying is don’t allow the animals to roam about and destroy people’s farms. And, where you must do open grazing, you must find an alternative place to do so and if it happens to be out of Benue state, the government and security council are ready to provide security for such persons to go out of the state.
The law was highly criticized before and even now that it has become into being by some groups like the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association. How were you able to handle the negative comments surrounding the law?
As you know, there are two groups of Miyetti Allah. The one called the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders’ Association( MACBAN) and the other group, the political wing, which is called Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, which came about as a fall out from the national election conducted by MACBAN. These are young, educated men living in Abuja, staying in posh houses and whose children go to school.
When I was a minister and Buhari was contesting, this group crowned former President Goodluck Jonathan Grand Patron of Miyetti Allah, which just shows that they are politicians trying to get something. Can any of them go to the jungle and become a herdsman?
The Miyetti Allah we know in Nigeria today came to Benue state for an interface and they accepted that ranching at this time remains the best option but the only issue was that the time was too short. However, we were also pressed for time and we knew that not implementing the law means more crisis like what is happening in other states.
The truth is that with 200 herds of cattle being controlled by only two or three herdsmen, there is no way to prevent them from trespassing into farmlands. The farmer whose sole means of livelihood are his produce will have to do all he can to protect his farm.
Basically, what I’m saying is that states and federal government must come together and support the herdsmen in establishing ranches because it is global best practice and there is no other alternative.
We know that land is a choice commodity for the Tivs in Benue state because they are large scale farmers. Can the state government just pass an anti-open grazing law without earmarking a particular area for the establishing of ranches? And if so, how many hectares have been earmarked? How does the herdsman approach the state government in order to have a smooth implementation of the law?
The law went through public hearings and underwent contributions from various stakeholders. As I mentioned before, the law does not give provision for establishing ranching for cattle breeders but it did make provision for ranching with permits authorised by the government though the local governments.
Certain things must be considered when establishing a ranch; availability of water, proximity to where one can get feeds, and so on. Once applications are made, it is processed through the local governments and the governor signs the permit. We are not restricting it to a particular area because that will be creating some issues with breeders.
Benue State is known as the food basket of the nation and the federal government’s policy of the exportation of yams is now in place. How much is your government doing to encourage farmers so that they can cash in on this policy?
It is true that yam does so well in Benue State and we are ready to close the gap wherever people want yams. The only problem is that yam is a perishable commodity which has a time limit but if they are able to export between the time of harvest in September till June, people will be encouraged to go into it. We have sent text messages to farmers to encourage them since export has started. Beyond that, it is the intention of Benue state government to encourage investors to establish yam processing factories. Once we are able to do that, people are ready to provide yams.
In Benue state, ranching should be more than just a business because the activities of herds/farmers clashes border on security. Be this as it may, has government put any measures in place to ease the business of ranching because of its centrality to security?
All these issues were considered during the public hearings. The land use act allows government to decide over land so it is our responsibility. I agree that it is a security matter but the fact is what we have done provides a solution to the insecurity that was existing.
For the herdsmen, nobody will rustle their livestock any longer and the farmers crops will be free from destruction. I have been a victim of cattle rustling three times, so I know what it is like. Now, if a herd of cattle is seen roaming around, they will be apprehended by the livestock guards, vigilante groups or conventional security that are in place.
As leaders, we must guide and provide good leadership when we are confronted with challenges and in the case of clashes between farmers and herdsmen, this is the best solution but if anybody has a better one, I am open to suggestions.
How are you tackling the issue of salaries and debts that you inherited from the previous government?
We inherited N69billion arrears in salaries, pension and gratuities, over N70bn being owed contractors and it has been a very big task. Having a wage bill of over N8.5 billion, we were able to trim it down to N7.8bn through screening, weeding out of ghost workers and redundant staff but when you have a wage bill of over 7.8billion and an income of 6.5billion as it is now, it becomes very difficult because we don’t have the capacity in terms of revenue inflow to the state to be able to contain this.
In the last stakeholders meeting, we made a decision which was accepted by all, to further trim down the wage bill to N4.5bn, which is more reasonable. We believe that by 2018, we should be able to come to a wage bill of 4.5billion.
