EDITORIAL

RUGA: WHY A VET STUDENT SHOULD BE CONCERNED

For quite a long while ago, a particularly prominent headline persisting on Nigerian news outlets was the issue of Fulani herdsmen infiltrating Nigerian neighborhoods where they were not wanted. Well, apart from causing turmoil and destroying the natural ecosystem, these herdsmen, Fulani or not, were also killing innocent Nigerians. They were armed with delicate and expensive weapons, massacring people including women and children and raping women. They were persisting in their menace and government could not provide a reasonable intervention. However, suddenly, the federal government woke up from their slumber. They suddenly rose from their recumbency bringing in their hands the redeemer. They suddenly brought Rural Grazing Areas (Ruga) to us. The abrupt response of the government is evident according to the Special Adviser to the President on Media Affairs, Mr. Femi Adesina, who said ―RUGA is immediate, it can‘t wait. It is an emergency response.

Meanwhile, for about two years, the Nigerian Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo has been working with all state governors to produce the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) 2019-2028, a plan that is hoped to address the menace of Fulani herdsmen, among other things. One of the pillars on which the plan is built, according to the office of the vice president is the ―economic investment pillar which is proposed to make provisions for the development of clusters of market driven ranches in pilot states including Adamawa, Benue, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Nassarawa, Plateau, Taraba, Zamfara and Oyo states.

However, without taking cognizance to the carefully tailored 2 years plans of Mr Vice President, the Federal Executive Council presided by President Muhammadu Buhari approved the RUGA
initiative on May 8, 2019. This is obvious as reports from the office of the vice president denied
any affiliation with the RUGA idea. This situation of divided presidency can be a strong indicator of the mess around this consensus agreed by the Federal Executive Council. Like Ruga, the NLTP also involves land grants from states willing to participate and they both include a group of settled Fulani herdsmen. However, unlike RUGA, the NTLP has been carefully tailored to engage relevant stakeholders and provision of far-sighted plans and required measures. The NLTP is clear in terms of capital, justice, law, conflict resolution and sustainability of plan. With the NLTP, there will be establishment of basic amenities such as schools, hospitals, markets, road networks, vet clinics and manufacturing entities that will process and add value to meat and animal products. It is clear that if the initiative of accommodating Fulani herdsmen were to be considered at all, more planned measures would be better to be implemented, not the ―SOS RUGA. Apart from hopefully combating the issue of insecurity roaming the nation, more vet clinics would be available and there will be more opportunity of practicing the One Health concept in Nigeria.

Just as expected, RUGA was welcomed with humongous opposition by many Nigerians. It is
quite obnoxious that the only way our brilliant government desires to solve the herdsmen issue is
by legally giving them homes in areas where they may not be wanted. It is appalling and quite
nauseating that ―Fulanization agenda,‖ as some people call it, is the sudden solution to diversifying Nigerian economy from the sole oil and gas. The government said interested governors should give land to herdsmen. The implication of this is not intricate. Giving large amount of land to people and animals that are not native to a particular place will cause interpersonal crises. They will bring and incubate their own diseases, tilting the natural ecology of the locale. Many Nigerians wondered why the only solution of the farmers-herdsmen clash is only favouring the herdsmen and not the farmers that have been bearing the losses. It is obviously not wise to officially make neighbors, people that may wipe out a whole town because of their cattle.

In fact, what is contemporarily practiced in all areas of the world is ranching, not grazing. In ranching, people will put their cattle in a farm where feed are brought to them by the animal handlers, not the cattle roaming about seeking their food themselves, except, however, in few cases. Apart from decreasing the potential of disease communication, ranching will give more productive yield and will of course decrease the stress of both the animals and their handlers. However, these forward-moving-backward-progressing herdsmen prefer to stubbornly stick to their archaic methods and cause menace to our land.

Therefore, government should not only suspend the RUGA initiative, but to eliminate it from the proceedings of the nation. We all have seen what these herdsmen can do, giving them homes within us is just like incubating turmoil in our homes. Government should consider more elaborate and effective means to curbing the herdsmen menace, like the VP‘s NLTP, and should
lay down measures to protect the lives of her citizens. Although, legalizing establishment of cattle settlements means more opportunity for veterinarians, vets should also carefully consider the long-term effect of settlement of herdsmen and well-being of all Nigerians at large.