Sometime in June/July 2019, the eruption of public complaints and protests over the killings and kidnappings blamed on the Fulani herdsmen especially in the North-Central zone, forced the Federal Government to take more than a casual notice of a dangerous and growing security challenge among the cocktail of such challenges it had been tackling ineffectively. It woke up, you see, from the comfort zone of assumptions that would normally stretch common sense.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development at the time, Dr Mohammed Bello Umar, said that the objective of the RUGA settlement plan was to address and possibly end the clashes between herdsmen and farmers that had taken, and still take, a heavy toll on our human and agricultural resources. He further said that the plan would end migration by pastoralists in search of green pastures for their animals.
In my column of July 12, 2019, I noted that RUGA was “conceived as a modern pastoral settlement for nomadic herdsmen and other animal breeders. It would have a market, an abattoir as well as schools and medical facilities for the pastoralists.” Eleven states showed interest in the scheme and were willing to donate land to it for the take-off of the pilot scheme.
Perhaps to show that it meant business, the Federal Government ditched RUGA and latched on to another proposal. It announced what it called National Livestock Transformation Plan. It was approved by the National Economic Council as a possible replacement for cattle colonies, cattle ranches and RUGA. I heard that there was no opposition to it from the members of the council. Maybe it was conceived as the least controversial plan so far in tackling the problem.
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