Vice President Kashim Shettima has been instructed by President Bola Tinubu to lead the National Economic Council (NEC) in identifying and restoring grazing reserves around the country in order to turn them into ranches.
According to the President, the action is essential to resolving ongoing disputes between farmers and herders as well as to maximizing the economic potential of Nigeria’s cattle industry.
Speaking at the Federal Executive Council meeting at the State House in Abuja, Tinubu assigned the NEC the responsibility of investigating feasible grazing areas in different states that might be developed into livestock communities.
Tinubu stated, “Again, in particular, livestock reform, I think the Vice President should first get the NEC to see which villages or grazing reserves can be salvaged or rehabilitated into ranches, livestock settlements.”
The President emphasized the need for workable solutions that provide financial benefits in order to resolve the long-standing conflicts between farmers and herders.
“We need to make the cattle reform an economically feasible development and remove the potential for conflict. The possibility exists. He said, “Let’s make use of it.”
Tinubu added that the NEC must operate within the constitutional framework in order to obtain states that are willing to participate in the conversion process since land belongs to the states.
He continued, “And it is in NEC, if we exercise the constitutional requirement which states that the land belongs to the states, whichever one they can salvage and convert to a livestock village, let’s stop this conflict area and turn it into economic opportunities and prosperity.”
