Baba Othman Ngelzarma, the National Secretary, Miyetti Allah Cattle<\/p>\n
Breeders Association of Nigeria, otherwise known as Fulani herdsmen has
\nsaid his association has only started enjoying protections under the
\nPresident Mohammadu Buhari’s Government.<\/p>\n
Ngelzarma said previous Government had neglected the Fulanis and their
\nlivestock business. Read the full interview first aired on Channels
\nTelevision:<\/p>\n
Q: I want to believe that you have seen part of the Grazing Bills and the<\/strong><\/em> Ans: Firstly, before I say anything, let me use this opportunity to Ans: Yes. Every day. Find out from Kaduna State. It\u2019s is really sad. Q: Since some of them are victims, do you think these Bills will address<\/strong><\/em> Ans: Yes, definitely. The law governing the establishment of grazing Q: So what happened to all the land?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Ans: What we have today is less than three million hectares \u2013 the so-called Q: If that is the case, you now have state governors who are saying they<\/strong><\/em> Ans: You see, these clashes came as a result of the absence of developed Q: How did the grazing reserves work for the herdsmen in the past?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Ans: A lot of legislations covered them because, if you go to the states, Q: Some people think if there are grazing reserves, that is where the <\/strong><\/em> Ans: They were occupied to some extent but encroachment by small farmers Q:Have groups like yours met northern governors to sensitise them to the<\/strong><\/em> Ans: We have been meeting with them for quite some time now.<\/p>\n Q: So why are they not listening?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Ans: I don\u2019t know. As I told you earlier, it is the neglect of this Q: Who do you think those people are?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Ans: We don\u2019t know. That is the problem. We see the media as going Q: But if you don\u2019t report the cases with the police, how do we report<\/strong><\/em> Ans: The police know very much what is happening. Go to the Police Q: There must be a faint idea of those who are killing people in the name<\/strong><\/em> Ans: They are criminals because we do not know them.<\/p>\n Q: But they say they dress like the average Fulani men? That cannot be Q: What do you do if you were in the shoes of the victims or the media<\/strong><\/em> Ans: Look, we must confess, we have criminals among the Fulani just like Q: So what is your group doing? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n As a voluntary organisation, there is alimit to what we can do.<\/p>\n We have been reporting to the security agencies Q: Some solutions have been proffered but a lot of people are saying the<\/strong><\/em> A: They are entitled to their opinion but, today, because of the Q: There is this issue of AK-47?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Ans: That is one issue I would like to correct. If you see a Fulani man Q: What sort of improvements have you seen from this administration?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Ans: This administration has helped us recover a lot of cattle. I\u2019m Q: How do you know your cattle?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n They have marks and there are traditional In Lagos, we have succeeded in catching about, four times, cattle rustlers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Baba Othman Ngelzarma, the National Secretary, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, otherwise known as Fulani herdsmen has said his association has only started enjoying protections under the President…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive","category-interviews"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nquestion is, do you think that would solve the problem?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\ncondemn in totality what has taken place in Enugu, it is extremely
\nshocking and I want to sympathise with the government and people of Enugu
\nState irrespective of who has done it. People have lost their lives. It is
\na sad happening and we hope the security will do all they could to fish
\nout the perpetrators. We, too, have suffered immensely in the hands of
\nthese perpetrators because our cattle are lost in their thousands,
\nFulanis are always kidnapped \u2013 hardly a day passes and you will not hear
\nthat five or 10 Fulanis have been kidnapped for ransom. Only that it is a
\nsilent happening and the media is not covering it.
\nQ:Fulani being kidnapped?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\nThese are things that are perpetrated by criminals but, surprisingly,
\neverybody is blaming the Fulani herdsmen; so we are now victims and
\nculprits at the same time.<\/p>\n
\nthe issues on the table?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\nreserves is not new, it started in 1965. Later in 1978, the Land Use Act
\nwas extended to cover it. In 1988, National Agriculture Policy also
\nearmarked 10percent of the total national territory for grazing areas \u2013
\nthat is, 9.8million hectares of land were earmarked in 1988 for grazing
\nreserves. That figure was later increased to 20million hectares.<\/p>\n
\ngazetted grazing areas cover only about three million. We have about 415
\ngrazing areas and grazing reserves and forest reserves because these are
\ndifferent things. The grazing reserves are those that are gazetted. Out
\nof the 415, 141 were gazetted. And those 141 reserves gazetted cover
\nonly about three million hectares of land. And even that one today has
\nbeen damaged by ecology, encroachment and the rest.<\/p>\n
\nwill not give out any land. Do you think they should just hold on to see<\/strong><\/em>
\nhow they could solve the clashes first, before the Bills?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\ngrazing reserves and the protection of those reserves. These are areas
\nthat have suffered a lot of neglect because the pastoralists\u2019 livelihood
\nhas been frequently undermined by unfriendly policies and laws. The
\npolicies of the past administrations have given more attention to agronomy
\nand not the livestock sub-sector. That is what has caused this problem.
\nThis is a consequence of the neglect of this long-term sector of the
\neconomy. As I told you, we have about three million hectares which have
\nbeen destroyed. They are mostly located in the northern and the
\nsouth-western parts of the country. These are all the states of the
\nNorth, as well as Oyo and Ogun states.<\/p>\n
\nyou have the local government and forestry units working effectively to
\nprotect the reserves but, today, I do not think they are there again.<\/p>\n
\nherdsmen should be?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\nand big-time farmers, who acquired land to obtain loans from banks and not
\nfor real agriculture and the environment, over-grazing and non-maintenance
\nof the reserves, have rendered them useless.<\/p>\n
\nfuture dangers of not maintaining those reserves?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\nsector that is causing this problem. If past administrations had done
\ntheir work like the immediate post-colonial administrations did, we
\nwouldn\u2019t be in this situation that we have found ourselves today. May be
\nthe reserves would have been developed to an extent that we won\u2019t have
\nthese issues. If you look at the Fulani man, the cattle business is his
\nlivelihood, so you then wonder why he would be pushed to the southern
\npart of the country in search of grass and water because, if grass and
\nwater were provided in the reserves in the North, I do not think the
\nherdsman would have the desire to go anywhere and expose himself to
\ndanger because he always moves with his family. He provides security for
\nhis family and security for his business, so how do you expect , no matter
\nhow illiterate he is, to go and ignite trouble for himself to get killed.
\nI think some people somewhere are out to profile the Fulani herdsmen as
\nterrorists.<\/p>\n
\nagainst the herdsmen because most of the challenges we face are not
\nreported.<\/p>\n
\nthem?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\nCommand in Kaduna State and find out what is happening to the Fulani
\nherdsmen. I\u2019m sure you are aware of the thousands of cattle that are
\nlost daily. Who are the owners of the cattle? They are Fulani herdsmen.
\nWe lose a lot of cattle as a result of cattle rustling but who is doing
\nsomething to protect us? It is only once the coming of this administration
\nthat we have seen action being taken in that area.<\/p>\n
\nof Fulani herdsmen?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\nruled out. There was a case in Taraba State two years ago. They came
\nin the Fulani attire but, when they were caught, it was discovered that
\nthey were not Fulani. Some people are trying to spoil the name of the
\nFulani herdsmen. That is what we have in the country today. They
\nstereotype and profile the Fulani herdsmen as criminals.<\/p>\n
\nthat, while carrying out your duty, the narrative you get is that they<\/strong><\/em>
\nwere kidnapped by Fulani people and this was the ransom they paid to them.<\/strong><\/em>
\n Are you saying people should not say it as it is because it involves<\/strong><\/em>
\nthe Fulani?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\nany other communities in Nigeria where there are criminals. You are
\ntalking about some 30million people in Nigeria. You are also talking
\nabout 16million cattle-rearing families in the country. So, if you go to
\nthe prison, you will see that the Fulani are more in number. You cannot
\nexpect a tribe that occupies just one local government to be compared
\nto one with a spread across the whole country.<\/p>\n
\nand they have been cooperating with us. In fact, the IGP knows everything.
\nTake for instance the Olu Falae issue. When it happened, a lot of media
\nattacks were on but we didn\u2019t respond; we just took the bull by the horn.
\nWe went on tour of the South-West. We went to Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ogun,
\nEkiti and later we landed in Ondo. Finally, we visited Olu Falae himself
\nand we discussed extensively and that was what laid that matter to rest
\nbecause much of what happened then was propaganda. Definitely, Olu Falae
\nwas kidnapped; he paid ransom and we discovered that some people were
\ninvolved. We admit that some people have criminal intent but profiling a
\nwhole race because of the crimes of a few or some is something that is
\nnot fair.<\/p>\n
\nBills cannot work. Some people insist that the Fulani herdsmen have a <\/strong><\/em>
\nbusiness to run and they should finance their business on their own<\/strong><\/em>
\nwithout destroying other peoples\u2019 properties?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\nprofiling, whichever community that sees a Fulani man is apprehensive.
\nSometimes, youths of the community would push the Fulani, shoot their
\ncows and that is what ignites problem. We visited Benue State during the
\nlast administration and we succeeded in bringing down tension. What we
\ndiscovered was that when they go to graze in the forest, an area that
\ndoesn\u2019t belong to anybody, people would come and demand money from them
\nbefore they can graze. And even after settling, another group would come
\nand demand for money again and, if they refuse to pay, they shoot the
\ncows. When a Fulani man gets to an area, he reports to the Fulani head in
\nthat area and then report to the traditional leadership in the community.
\nThis is the culture wherever they go. Today, we have over 30million cows
\nin Nigeria, and over 150million sheep and goats. So, if you don\u2019t plan
\nfor these things, there is definitely going to be a problem. We want
\ngovernment to settle these people in a place because we too are tired of
\nall these problems.<\/p>\n
\nhandling AK-47, that is because cattle rustling has become so much that
\none wonders if there is security in the country. With the coming of this
\nadministration, we are seeing a lot of improvement. No peace-loving
\nFulani man would be carrying AK-47 and moving about.<\/p>\n
\nsure you\u2019re aware of the amnesty granted to some of them in Kano State.<\/p>\n
\nways of identifying the cows. If there are many cows here and a Fulani
\nman wants to identify his own cattle from the recovered cattle, some would
\nsing or make some sounds and you\u2019ll see the Fulani man\u2019s cow coming out in
\nhis direction. All of them have marks for identification.<\/p>\n