Many citizens in the South and even those in the livestock rearing Northern part of the country were taken aback by President Bola Tinubu’s recent creation of a new Ministry of Livestock Development. Saying that everything is wrong with the decision underscores the dysfunctional leadership system where efforts supposedly aimed at problem solving are hardly result-oriented, but replete with contradictions that perpetuate the nation’s myriad challenges.
Since the President does not appear to be serious in tackling the extreme suffering in the land, the resort to the creation of a livestock ministry, is an attempt to beguile the citizenry, perhaps starting with sections of the country considered as superior political assets than others. So what happens when his second term bid begins to take shape and he still does not find himself on the right side of the electorate? Should we expect more fantastical actions intended to ridicule the country and achieve narrow interests.
It is unlikely that the president truly believes that it takes a full-fledged ministry to end the perennial clashes between pastoralists and farmers, when he was on the heels of implementing the Oronsaye Report on cutting the cost of governance, which was something unusual for two reasons. His predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari was not serious about reducing the cost of governance.
Again, the Oronsaye Report was the brainchild of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, so it was commendable that Tinubu was interested in it for a country where there is hardly any continuity in government.
But turning round to unbundle the Ministry of Agriculture rather than making livestock development one of the critical components, is more than meets the eye. The new ministry brings the number to a record 49, meaning an abandonment of his commitment to trimming the cost of governance.
If he had the national interest at heart, the creation of a livestock ministry should have been the last thing on his mind. The Oronsaye committee recommended the resuscitation of grazing reserves and other methods of land utilisation as part of the conflict mitigation and resource utilisation agenda. The rationale for the new ministry’s creation is therefore alien to tested ways in which to solve the farmer-herder crisis.
From all indications, the ministry seems to be a political gambit designed to appease the northern bloc. It revives the contentious Ruga policy of the Muhammadu Buhari administration and plunges Tinubu on a failed path that could not produce results and will yet fail to do so in the future unless the right things are done.
The herders’ conflict was triggered by decreasing access to land and economic and socio-cultural divisions between populations. It is the consequence of the preference of a zero-cost approach in cattle rearing. The conflicts have resulted in over 60,000 deaths across 22 states since 2001 according to findings.
Miyetti Allah, the umbrella body of cattle breeders must realize that a ministry of its own cannot covet people’s lands and give them to cattle rearers.
What Tinubu can do differently is to reverse the failed management of ranches. We don’t see how the livestock ministry serves the interest of herders when they are wandering out there, mostly on people’s farms to destroy crops.
Anything short of technical and financial interventions must mean the president has some ulterior political motives and herders do not stand to benefit from it.
