The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, has threatened to suspend selling of livestock across the country if the government at all levels does not tackle the challenges facing its members.
It gave the warning on Saturday in a communique issued after a Fulbe National Security Summit held in Abuja.
The communique read to journalists after the summit was signed by Baba Othman Ngelzarma, National President, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, His Excellency, Mallam Isa Yuguda, President Tabital Pulaaku International and Dr Salim Musa Umar, President General, Fulbe Global Development and Right Initiative.
The summit expressed anger over what it called “resentment and wrong profiling of the Fulbe across the nation.
“The summit calls on the Government to partner Fulbe socio-cultural associations/opinion leaders and Security Agencies to curtail the current trajectories.”
It lamented that that the Government had not made much inroads towards addressing the genesis of the current conflict, stressing that “the Fulbe pastoralists do not enjoy Government patronage and are often made scapegoats for most atrocities.”
“The Fulbe often suffers intimidation, segregation, molestation, and all forms of deprivation in the hands of Security Agents and Vigilantes groups thus forcing them out of their occupational livelihood and ancestral homes.
“The summit opined that the Fulbe pastoralists will be compelled to stop selling livestock across the nation if immediate action to curtail the current challenges by all tiers of Government are not addressed,” they warned.
The summit condemned the serious encroachment and dilapidation of grazing reserves throughout the country, calling for a need to preserve them in all states where they exist.
While acknowledging the complexity of the security challenges in the country, the summit emphasised that “the registered Fulbe socio-cultural groups and associations do not support any crime or criminality such as banditry, kidnapping and cattle rustling, as the Fulbe have also been the major victims.
“That the current security challenges confronting the country and especially the Fulbe communities ranging from banditry, kidnapping, socio-economic marginalisation, youth restiveness, drug abuse, cattle rustling, and proliferation of arms should be addressed as a matter of urgency and the necessary need to integrate the Fulbe to the larger society through education and social interaction.
“That the trend in social media is further fueling the conflict and current challenges of the Fulanis, unfortunately the social media is not regulated.
“The hate speeches in the social media targeted at the Fulanis should be addressed by the Government.
“The federal Government should revise and adopt a non-kinetic approach to ending banditry, kidnapping and cattle rustling, as the kinetic ways used over the years have only achieved very little result.”
On the recommendations of the Oronsaye Report, the summit urged the Government to consider as a necessity the retention of the National Commission for Nomadic Education as an Agency of the Federal Ministry of Education with a specialised mandate of ensuring the delivery of functional basic education to nomadic communities.
“This is in consideration of a research report on out-of-school children in Nigeria, that 8 million out of over 10 million out-of-school children in the country are pastoralists children.
“Therefore, not retaining the commission with sufficient funding to educate the children is an imminent danger to our dear nation,” it stated.
