Sunday Aborisade in Abuja A Bill which seeks to ban open grazing and establish a national agency for the regulation and management of ranches in Nigeria has passed second reading in Senate. The Bill titled: “A Bill to establish a National Animal Husbandry and Ranches Commission for the regulation, management, preservation and control of ranches throughout Nigeria; and for connected purposes, 2024” It was sponsored by Senator Titus Zam, an All Progressives Congress member representing Benue North-West Senatorial District in the National Assembly. Zam in his lead debate noted the increasing wave of violent conflicts that erupt from pastoralists and farmers interaction in Nigeria.
He said such conflicts had assumed a war-like dimension “with far reaching negative impact on the people and country as a whole.” He said the Senate cannot afford to look on while the country burns into ashes as a result of violent clashes between sedentary farmers and nomadic herders. The Senator said, “As stakeholders in the Nigeria project and elected representatives of the people, doing so would amount to abdication of our statutory and leadership responsibilities.
He said the menace of farmers and herders crises could easily be cured through a legislative therapy banning open grazing in Nigeria. Zam lamented that the Nigerian State had continued to pay lips-service to the challenge of farmers and herders altercation without addressing it in concrete terms in line with international best .
