Agriculture / News / politics

El-Rufai to Southern Governors: You can’t implement anti-open grazing law

The Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasil el-Rufai, has told his counterparts in the South that the anti-open grazing law that their House of Assembly are passing and which they are signing into law are not implementable.

El-Rufai said this on Tuesday during his visit to the headquarters of the All Progressives Congress in Abuja.

The Governor, who spoke with newsmen, said since there are over 14 grazing reserves in Kaduna State he would want to convert into ranching, he would be glad if the Federal Government can support his state with N140 billion.

He said: “The Northern Governors Forum has already taken a position that open grazing is not a sustainable way of livestock production. “And we must move towards ranching.

“But moving towards ranching cannot be done overnight.

“We have to have a plan, we have to have resources and we have to implement it sensibly.

“It is not a matter of populist legislation or saying tomorrow this or that.

“It is not a solution.

“We have taken a position as northern state governors and we are implementing that.

“And in my state, for instance, we are developing a huge ranch to centralize the herders.

“And that is the solution, a long time.

“But can it be done overnight?

“No.

“This project we are doing will cost us about N10 billion.

“The CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) is supporting us with about N7.5 billion.

“And it will take about two years to do.

“We will be settling about 1,500 Fulani herders family.

“And I hope that they will see that there are alternative ways of producing livestock instead of running up and down with cattle going to people’s farms to cause all kinds of problems. We want to solve the problem.”…

Agriculture / News

Food, cattle dealers threaten nationwide strike

The Amalgamated Union of Food Stuff and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria says it will embark on a nationwide strike over alleged illegal roadblocks and multiple taxations on its members.

The National President of the union, Muhammed Tahir, stated this while addressing newsmen at the end of an emergency meeting of the union on Tuesday in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria recalled that the union had in March went on strike following similar allegations, including extortion of her members and attacks of its members in some parts of the country.

The union had earlier embarked on a six-day industrial action which was suspended after the intervention of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State.

Tahir said after reviewing the issues, the union resolved to throw her weights behind the Onion Union, who had commenced cutting off supply to the southern part of the country due to the same issues.

He, therefore, said the union would cut the supply of food nationwide if government failed to meet its demands within three weeks.

According to him, AFUCDN is not on strike at the moment, but may not guarantee industrial harmony after three weeks if the government fails to meet the union’s demands.

Also, Magama Saleh, Legal Adviser to the union, said the government must do the needful to avert cutting down of food supply across the country.

Saleh said: “This is an emergency meeting in regards to what is happening to our members in South East and South South Nigeria, this is also to brief our members nationwide on the aftermath of the three-month strike.

“Today’s resolution is that we are declaring support to the various unions under the umbrella of the amalgamated union.

“The onion association has embarked on strike last night and only to the south, and as a national union, we have discussed extensively and have resolved to support them on their industrial action.

“We have written a reminder letter to the Federal Government, through the ministry concerned and security agencies reminding them of their previous promises to the union.…