The Southern and Middle Belt
Leaders Forum, Wednesday, rejected the Federal Government’s decision to spend
N179bn to build ranches, describing it as a vexatious declaration.
In a statement jointly signed by
Messrs. Yinka Odumakin (South West), Senator Bassey Henshaw (South South), Prof
Chigozie Ogbu (South East) and Dr Isuwa Dogo (Middle Belt), the forum, however,
commended the decision of the government to embrace ranching for cattle rearers
against the erstwhile insistence on archaic open grazing and old century cattle
routes, but kicked against using the public fund to set them up.
The statement reads: “The
decision to ignore this sensible recommendation has led to a situation where
untold terror has been unleashed on farming communities with needless loss of
hundreds of lives in the last 3 years with not a soul under prosecution and top
functionaries of the administration making excuses for the killers.
“We, however, object to the
Federal Government’s decision to spend N179bn of public funds to build these
ranches over 10 years starting with N70bn under this administration.
“Cattle-rearing is a private
business in which individuals make billions of Naira with no record of what
they pay as taxes.
“And it is unfortunate that the
Federal Government was making this vexatious declaration while receiving the
Chief Executive Officer of Friesland Campina of Netherlands without bothering
to find out that it was put together by Cooperatives with roots going back to
1879 and is one of the World’s top five dairy companies with annual revenue of
11 billion.
“It is only reasonable that those
who want to engage in the business should approach the states where they want
to build ranches and acquire land to build such with firm commitment to abide
by the rules of host communities.
“Rewarding the herders with
public funds to build ranches would only mean that they have killed enough to
beat the country into pacification mode. And this can only encourage other
people to arm themselves, cause sufficient killings to get an undue concession.
“What would our society become if
fishermen, farmers, and people in other trades begin to cause bloodbath so the
Federal Government could give them special consideration?
“We call on the Federal
Government to shelve the idea of committing public funds on ranches and allow
the owners of the business to attend to their business needs.
“To go ahead with the plan is to
say that cattle owners own this Government and that would make other segments
of society to say “we have no inheritance in this arrangement.”
Will they hear?
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