ACT NOW OR ACCEPT RUGA (II)

As we debate RUGA and Fulanization many wailers and Nigerians act like we would not be faced by both prospects if only Atiku were President forgetting that his feeder lot proposal is tantamount in implementation to RUGA’s. 

Nigerians need to understand that Whether you have an Atiku or Buhari presidency they objective to appropriate land for the Fulani, the “singular custodians” of Nigeria beef, to sustain and nurture our herd of cows remains the public policy goal of the federal government for lack of plausible alternatives or competition.

According to reports even former president Goodluck Jonathan gave his premature to the project and an idoma man, the minister of Agriculture has not resigned over the proposal and has tried to sell it the only issue is that it is being accelerated by the Fulani dominated and partisan administration of President Buhari.

The statewide implementation of RUGA across the country however was temporarily halted by public fury of non-northern states but the program will be repackaged for implementation across the country by a desperate Buhari before the end of his tenure or implemented by his northern successor if you believe the rumors.

Putting aside all suspicions the whole necessity for RUGA is the national food security objective to grow our cattle supply and prevent them from going into extinction from disease, banditry, and rapid urbanization that has erased ancient cattle routes from the map and disease and eliminated sources of hay for the cow. 

The whole goal to appropriate land for cows comes from the criminal neglect of agriculture by State governments who have not acted proactively to use their God given resource of land for modernized farming or animal husbandry.

It is sad and it speaks volumes about our agriculture where lip service is paid to agriculture and millions budgeted but Nigerian agriculture is still at the peasant level. It is also quite sad that the clashes between farmers and pastorals has significantly reduced the public’s vestiture in agriculture and husbandry to the point where the federal government must seize land and allocate it to the Fulani the only tribe that is naturally or culturally fixated on the job of rearing our extra meat and pepper soup.

This temporary suspension of RUGA is a wakeup call to states especially in the Middlebelt to begin putting so called ancestral land to use by creating ranches to start breeding their traditional species of cows to thwart the intuitive logic of the federal to forcefully seize unused and fallow land for the same purpose and gift it to the Fulani as an incentive.

If states refuse to invest as they should have done for years in animal husbandry for cows and instead allow state governors to appropriate the entire budget into their pockets then the will have no one to blame for the loss of ancestral land when RUGA repackaged by another name is forcefully imposed and land appropriated in a state because a compromised Governor agrees with the federal plan because of an EFCC case or because it is the only thing standing in his way towards securing a Senate seat.

Typical of most initiatives in Nigeria the Igbo’s have started the first steps towards countering the Fulani monopoly of beef and it is up to other beleaguered states to follow. 

By Terhemba Osuji | July 15, 2019