Abaribe, while featuring on Channels TV on Tuesday, said that the Northern region of Nigeria has enough landmass for cattle ranching, stressing that open grazing as seen in Nigeria is no longer a global standard practice.
Former Senate Minority Leader and Senator representing Abia South senatorial district, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, has said that there is no need having herdsmen roaming around the South-East, destroying people’s farms and killing the people of the region in the name of doing their business.
Abaribe, while featuring on Channels TV on Tuesday, said that the Northern region of Nigeria has enough landmass for cattle ranching, stressing that open grazing as seen in Nigeria is no longer a global standard practice.
Speaking on the ranching bill that has scaled second reading at the National Assembly, the lawmaker said, “What baffles some of us really is that we see solutions and we pretend that we don’t see that solutions. The matter is very clear, there is nowhere in the world where people are left to roam everywhere.
“The best cattle producing countries in the world are done through ranching. The North has more than enough land for ranching.
“Even Awolowo set up ranches when he was a Premier. This is not rocket science to the Northern governors. The point really is when you engage them (the governors) outside of their porterhouses of power, they tell you the truth, so, it behoves on the President and his cabinet and those who are involved to deal with this issue.”
Speaking further, he said that on the issue of banditry, “The Sultan of Sokoto had one time under former President Buhari administration said that 90% of all these bandits were from the same Fulanis. It wasn’t me that said it. It is not like we don’t know.
“There is no earthly reason why somebody should come to Abia State and let his cattle roam in our farms as far South as Abia State.
“In fact, last week, some youths from my own local government, Obingwa in Abia state, from a place called Akpambaku, sent SOS (Save Our Souls) to me that herders were wiping out their farms with their cows.
“There is nowhere in the world that it is done. The sooner we get to grips with that the better for everybody.”
According to him, Malaysia has started bringing in some types of grasses that can thrive in semi-arid regions.
He said, “So, it is not grass, it is just people roaming around who want to colonise a place and take over people’s lands. And until we say truthful to each other, there is no way we can go beyond this mountain of whether it can be done or not.
“It was unfortunate that the Buhari government was the government that openly supported people who are not Nigerians.
“There was a funny part of debate on the floor of the Senate on that same ranching bill. When we said that everybody should go back to their state of origin, some people got up and said no, that these people don’t have states of origin.
“If anybody don’t have a state of origin in Nigeria, it means he is not a Nigerian and that is all we have been saying all along.”
According to Abaribe, “Part of good relations is that I will respect your right and you will respect my rights as a citizen but there are some agreements that were made which we find utterly ridiculous.
“When somebody argues that an Igbo spare parts dealer can operate anywhere in the country, of course the Igbo spare parts dealer buys his goods, rents a shop, stays in his shop and does his business that you buy and sell.
“The Igbo spare parts dealer does not carry AK-47 to kill someone. But somebody else is going around with his cattle, destroys your farms, kills you and your children and wife and family and you tell me that he is free to do that? How can the two things even be compared?”
Asked if there have been any prosecution on herders killing farmers and destroying farms, Senator Abaribe said, “That is the point, and that is why most people are so bothered.
“Some people have been arrested but they are set free. People have been stopped from going somewhere. Why? Because at the end of the day, you go back to the security agents and the security agencies will tell you that their hands are tied.
“When some women came to me in my local government, all we said was, go to the DPO because I cannot take laws into my hands. It is the security agents that are supposed to do it.
“Most states have passed those laws but a state does not have its own security agencies because they have to refer back to both the Nigeria Police and the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Air Force.
“At the end of the day, there must be a clear determination by the governments in this country that the killing of Nigerians must stop, that the taking over people’s lands in Nigeria must stop, that the destruction of properties and farms must stop.”
He stressed, “Unless that is done, and how to do it brings this question of letting everybody go back to their states of origin and establish ranches there.”
He said “There was a particular time the National Chairman of the APC, former Governor Ganduje, said when there was debate on ranching, that Kano state alone has more than enough land for all the cows in Nigeria, and nobody has said it is not true.
“There are more cows in Botswana than in Nigeria and the size of Botswana is the size of two states in the South-East. It is just a question of Will. It is a question of we doing the right thing.
“In the 21st century, there is no way anybody can assume that the way we lived in the 19th century is the way we are going to live today, it will not be possible. We will always have this conflict if it is not dealt with expeditiously.”
Abaribe also revealed that the National Assembly has not seen the documents and dimensions of President Bola Tinubu’s proposed Ministry of Livestock.