Stephanie Peter
The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has rejected the Federal Government’s proposed pilot ranching programme, warning that it could lead to the takeover of ancestral lands under the guise of livestock development.
The forum, in a statement issued on Wednesday, urged communities and governments in the Southern states to resist the policy, particularly with Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue, Southern Kaduna, Taraba and the Federal Capital Territory listed among the proposed pilot areas.
The statement was signed by SMBLF Chairman, Oba Oladipo Olaitan; Middle Belt Forum President, Dr Bitrus Pogu; Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide President-General, John Azuta-Mbata; and PANDEF National Chairman, Ambassador Godknows Igali.
The Punch reported that the Federal Government has said the ranching initiative is intended to modernise livestock production, reduce cattle movement and help tackle farmer-herder conflicts. The Wase Grazing Reserve in Plateau State is expected to serve as one of the pilot locations.
The SMBLF questioned why the programme was being focused largely on the Middle Belt when, according to the group, there are large areas of sparsely populated land in parts of the far North.
“It is striking that this experiment is being concentrated almost entirely in the Middle Belt, despite the vast expanses of sparsely populated and unused land available in many parts of the far North,” the SMBLF said.
The forum said it was not against ranching, modern livestock production or the development of the livestock value chain. Its concern, it said, was the “opaque, coercive and discriminatory manner” in which the policy was being pursued.
It also argued that communities affected by violence and displacement should not be expected to give up their ancestral lands.
The group warned the Federal Government that the Land Use Act of 1978 was “not a licence for arbitrary land grabbing”, insisting that compulsory acquisition of land for economic purposes could not simply be justified as being in the public interest.
