The Presidency on Friday said dialogue with the leadership of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) was meant to stop cows from roaming the streets of the city centre of the nation’s capital, Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the dialogue was held at the instance of the Chairman, Board of Trustees of MACBAN, Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, and the Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Maiha.
In his remark, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Livestock Development, Idris Abiola-Ajimobi, reiterated the commitment of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to finding lasting solutions to the challenges bedevilling pastoralists in the country.
“We are here for a stakeholders’ engagements meeting. It’s a gathering to dialogue with the livestock stakeholders to let them understand the efforts that are being made by the administration of President Tinubu.
“We are working together with the Ministry of Livestock Development and other relevant agencies to address the root causes of the problems.
”The issue of livestock moving around the streets of Abuja. We must first solve the issue of greasing reserves; we are working on ranches, and we are working on the Special Agro Industrial Processing Zone.
“We are also working on reviving the grazing reserves, providing feeds and ranches whereby pastoralists can find a safe zone to operate in to leave and coexist as well as have all the basic social amenities they need.
”Like feeds, water, the healthcare system, veterinary clinics and other essential services,” Abiola-Ajimobi said.
Also, Dr Balarabe Kakale, Special Assistant to the Minister of Education on Almajiri and Out-of-School-Children Education, said
The meeting also looked at the all-inclusive efforts of the Federal Ministry of Education.
“The meeting interacted with all the stakeholders and leaders, mainly of MACBAN, in Abuja and surrounding states and unanimously came up with one very important resolution.
“They are ready to partner with the sustainable grazing solutions of the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, for which education is the key component.
”And they were ready to move to the grazing reserves of Abuja. So far, the required amenities are all provided there, and of course, they are about the nomadic schools, veterinary and medical clinics, electricity, water, mini dams, among others.
”And they are all ready to key into the all-inclusive education transformative agenda of this administration to get every child into functional education and learning,” he said.
For his part, the National President of MACBAN, Alhaji Baba Othman-Ngelzarma, affirmed that the meeting was organised to address the concerns of cows roaming the city centre.
”And to also address the issue of education, particularly the issue of out-of-school children, of which the pastoralist children are the majority.
”Out of about 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, we believe 80 per cent of them belong to the pastoralist children.
”So, the issues of concern were raised and addressed here.You can see the congregation; we want to make Abuja a model. We want to start practising it here and see how it is going to work for us.
” You can see we have invited all the stakeholders, the leadership of MACBAN from the six Area Councils of the FCT, and those families whose cows are roaming the streets of the city centre.
“We all invited them to hear from them. Let’s know what the process is that is bringing them into the city, and how can we stop it?” he said.
Othman-Ngelzarma disclosed that a committee would be set up to find a lasting solution that would stop cows from roaming the city centre. (NAN)
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