By Abdulkareem Mojeed
President Muhammadu Buhari has restated his administration’s commitment to bringing back cattle grazing routes as a way of resolving clashes between herders and farmers.
Mr Buhari said this in an interview with Channels Television aired on Wednesday.
He said he has had personal discussions with the agriculture minister to bring back the cattle grazing routes in place during the First Republic, mainly in Northern Nigeria.
Many Nigerians have criticised that policy, saying herders should instead be made to raise their cattle in ranches.
Hundreds of people are killed yearly across Nigeria in violence between herders and farming communities.
Since coming to office in 2015, Mr Buhari has maintained the view that the restoration of grazing routes is the only way to solve the problem. He repeated the argument in his latest interview.
“The ministers of agriculture from Audu Ogbe to Mahmud now, one of the issues I discussed with them is to go and get the gazettes of the past republic,” Mr Buhari said.
“There are cattle routes and grazing grounds and cattle rearers are confined to those areas.Those that go outside those areas are arrested and farmers are asked to come make their claims. If they don’t have the money their cattle are sold and farmers are settled.
“So we have to go back to that again and make sure that we prepare those grazing areas and put the veterinary in place. We are working towards achieving that,” he added.
Mr Buhari said while his administration cannot do much about weather fluctuations that may affect food production, it has taken steps to deal with insecurity and “we are seeing the results”.
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