About two million cattle is said to have been lost to cattle rustlers and several pastorals kidnapped in the last three to four years.
Secretary General, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Mr. Baba Othman Ngalzarma, stated this in an interview with Blueprint last Thursday, saying 95% of the cattle rustlers stole belong to Fulani herdsmen and that before one personality is kidnap in the city, about 30 pastoralists might have been kidnapped for ransoms in the forest.
Commending the current administration for being the first in about 20 years to give the livestock sector attention he however said the government seems not to be doing enough to address the problem of pastoral routes that has been blocked.
“This is the first time in 20 years the livestock sector is receiving attention and there are a lot of interventions by the private sector, international agencies and other NGOs and also recently we held a three-day workshop which was supported by USAID funded by other organisation.
“These cattle we stolen within a span of three, four years, about two million cows were lot due to menace of cattle rustling as a result of this, so many families were rendered poor, note that the cows are sources of food and employment to the herdsmen because that is a symbol of prestige to him. So if you deprive him of this you render him useless because apart from this he doesn’t know anything.
“He doesn’t go to school, and don’t know much about west education, so if you deprive him of this, what do you expect. So a lot of our youth have become idle because they have been deprive of their livelihood.
“The government is doing lot to address the farmers, cattle breeders conflicts and the problems associated with livestock development in the country. Recently a committee was constituted under the FAO to provide the ministry with a policy dialogue on how to transform the grassing reserves in to ranches and a report has been given to government,” ,” he said.
He said government decision to allow private sector into livestock, saying this has allowed a telecommunication outfits like the MTN introduce a tracking device called Cattle Tracking Identification through the inserting of chips in the body of the cattle at a cost to the owners.
