Past Failures of Grazing Reserves (RUGA) in Nigeria Left the Host Communities Overwhelmed with Unprecedented Growth of Fulani Population Now Contesting Superior Citizenship Rhights
In Nigeria, past efforts to get the Fulanis breed their cattle in state-provided grazing reserves have resulted in colossal failures with consequent overwhelming Fulani population.
Formal grazing reserves in Nigeria started accidentally in the 1950s when Hamisu Kano, working with pastoralists on livestock vaccination, foresaw the shortages of grazing land in Northern Nigeria. Supported by the government, he initiated the grazing reserve scheme from the abandoned government resettlement schemes (Fulani Settlement Scheme). The resettlement schemes collapsed because the government had neither the financial nor the managerial ability to continue with the financially burdensome scheme, and the best alternative use of the land, the government thought, was to convert it into grazing reserves that were less financially committed. Grazing reserve hatched in 1954 after a study of the Fulani production system contained in the "Fulani Amenities Proposal." The proposal suggested the creation of grazing reserves, the improvement of Fulani welfare, and the transformation of the herd management system. By 1964, the government had gazetted about 6.4 million hectares of the forest reserve, ninety-eight percent in the savanna. Sokoto Province had twenty-one percent of the land, followed by Kabba, Bauchi, Zaria, Ilorin, and Katsina, with 11-15 percent each (Awogbade 1982). The Wase, Zamfara, and Udubo reserves followed in succession.
In 1965, the Northern Nigerian Government incorporated the Fulani Amenities Proposal into the Grazing Reserve Law. Before the enactment of the Grazing Reserve Law of the Northern Nigeria, the pastoral Fulani relied on the goodwill of the farmers, who conferred upon themselves the lordliness of occupied and unoccupied land. The Fulanis resented that.
In 1976, the Survey Department finished the survey for most of the land earmarked for grazing. The United States Agency for International Development gave the technical assistance. By 1980, Nigeria had established 2.3 million hectares of grazing reserves, although this figure represented only eleven percent of the planned size (Omaliko and others 1984; and Bako and Ingawa 1988). The government acquired less than five percent of the ten million hectares proposed as grazing land (N.L.P.D. record 1992). Of the forty-five planned dams, twenty-four have been completed. Five borehole had been sunk. Of the expected 722 roads, 150 had been built, showing a huge deficit.
At the close of 1992, the government had identified over 300 areas with twenty-eight million hectares for grazing reserve development. About forty-five of these areas, covering some 600,000 hectares, had been gazetted. Eight of these reserves, totaling 225,000 hectares, were fully established. Already, 350 of the projected 950 pastoral families and 11,600 of the planned 46,000 cattle were using these reserves (N.L.P.D. record 1992). Apart from acquiring the land, the government regulated how the Fulani should use the grazing reserves.
All of the above failed and folded up, because (1) the Fulani herdsmen, besides their proclivity for violence, have an in-built resistance to any order outside their roaming in the wild culture as it pleases them and (2) the incompetence and the fraudulent nature of government managers plus the attitude of that government business is nobody's business.
Wase Grazing Reserve
The story of Wase Grazing Reserve, located in Wase Local Government in Plateau state, which had one of the most successful and hopeful start, is lesson enough against any state-funded grazing reserve, cow colony or RUGA, call it whatever deceptive name. Built on a forested areas south-west of Jos plateau, the reserve had an excellent 74,000 hectares and abundant rivers, streams, and pasturage. Sparsely populated and tsetse fly-free, it rested mostly on flat land. Thus, the reserve was selected as a perfect grazing land. With the financial and technical aids from the U.S.A.I.D. In tens of Millions of USDollars, the reserve took off in 1965. By 1973, the construction phase that included numerous dams, roads, and fire breaks had been completed. It then attracted many pastoral Fulani, leading to overcrowding and strain on the reserve's infrastructure. Animals that charged into the reserve literally drank up the water in the dams and outgrew pasture resources.
Then the U.S.A.I.D. aids terminated without establishing stocking rates, rotational grazing schemes, and a Reserve management committee. Overgrazing and burning became widespread, while the structures on the reserve deteriorated.
By the time the U.S.A.I.D. involvement stopped in 1975, almost every aspect of the reserve had collapsed. The dams and fences were broken. Implements rusted. Roads were washed away. The school that was opened for the pastoralists in 1975 was closed. The pastoralists on the reserve had reverted to their seasonal search for livestock feed (Ezeomah 1978).
The Proposed 2019 Plan is Another Plot to Steal Government Funds, Resettle and Enable Wandering Fulanis From All Over West Africa to Take Over Nigeria:
The Nigerian Government January 2019 Plan branded National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) plans about N91billion in investments in grazing reserves for a projected profit of N2trillion over the 10-year period is therefore a hoax or indeed Jihad of deception.
The first phase of the plan is expected to take care of grazing reserves in each of the seven pilot states of Adamawa, Benue, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba, and Zamfara with four ranches (small, intermediate, medium and large) in each grazing reserve.
Ranchers and rearers will be encouraged to bring their cattle to a fattening site wherein the cattle will be fed so as to boost average weight from 200-250 kg to 450-500kg.
The question is: If N91 Billion would yield N2 Trillion in 10 years, why are the billionaires/trilionnaires who own the cattle, the oil wells in Niger/Delta and gold mines in Zamfara not. investing in the ranches. Why should the Federal Government invest rrecoverable N91Billion? If the motive is not land grabbing and invasion of Nigeria by West African Fulanis and Fulanisation/Islamisation of Nigeria as is already happening in Southern Kaduna and Plateau state, why not start the pilot scheme in core Fulani North-West states? Why Middle Belt states of Benue, S. Kaduna, Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba? Zamfara is probably the only exception. Adamawa is a major Cattle state too.
THE BITTER TRUTH is that Fulani herdsmen are forest dwellers and more comfortable in the wild. Their proclivity for violence is a very grave threat to national security. The Federal Government apparent connivance with them on their security siege on Nigeria since 2000, has resulted in present proliferation of kidnapping, indiscriminate killings, rapes and banditry all over Nigeria. The government and Nigerians are naive to expect that other criminal-minded Nigerians would not join their Fulani colleagues in those criminal activities since the Fulanis are never arrested and prosecuted.
The Kantagora Sample of RUGA in Niger State
The Land size of the first of first RUGA, Grazing Land, or Cattle Colony in Kantagora is 31,000 hectares or 310 sq. kilometers, the size of many LGAs in Nigeria - average in the SE 331sq. Km. RUGA amounts therefore to an exclusive Fulani LGA, planned to be six exclusive Fulani colonies in each state of the Federation. By the completion schedule there would be 216 of them. The average population of a local government in Nigeria is about 260,000 and given that Fulanis apply no birth control and President Buhari's government plans no such control; instead it is in a hurry for Fulanis to overwhelm the indigenous population, a Fulani LGA could be more than 400,000. Their effective population in a State where there are six Fulani LGAs would amount to 1.5 to 2.4 million! Imagine the impact on the state of such population of a people who have no regard for right to life and/or the right to decency of fellow human beings. If there are 13 million Fulanis in present Nigeria's 200 million population, imagine the impact of over 60 million in projected over 250 million in 10 years' time?
Even if the grazing reserves or RUGA or Fulani Cattle colonies fail, as they are planned to, given the stark fact that the governments of Nigeria has never succeeded in managing any business venture, the real intension of RUGA would remain a political/religious success as we would have overwhelming populations of Fulanis intimidating the whole country with violence as they have successfully done to Hausas since after the 1804-10 AD Jihad.
RUGA is therefore JIHAD OF DECEPTION, JIHAD OF POLYGAMY/POPULATION, JIHAD OF FINANCE AND JIHAD OF THE SWORD (VIOLENCE) BEING OPENLY INITIATED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA. IT MUST THEREFORE BE LIMITED TO NORTHWEST AND NORTHEAST STATES THAT HAVE THE LAND MASS. FOREIGN FULANIS MUST BE EXCLUDED.
Emeka Onyesoh
8th July, 2019.
