Gov Samuel Ortom


Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom  Thursday reiterated his position that  ranching remains the panacea for lasting peaceful co-existence between farmers and herders in Nigeria. 

Gov Ortom who was the Guest Speaker at the Press Week of the Correspondents Chapel, NUJ, FCT Council, spoke on 'Insecurity in Nigeria: Restoring Peace, Unity and Progress', in which he stressed that all States in the Country are unstable, with multiple security challenges tied to poverty, banditry, insurgency and state failure.

 He also expressed concerns over the somewhat indifference or laid back attitude of President Muhammadu Buhari and conspiratorial reactions of his appointees to the insecurity challenge in Benue

The governor revealed that the 'Benue State Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law, 2017'  brought to limelight the hitherto hidden conquest and occupation agenda of a group of people

The opposition to the bill notwithstanding, the governor maintained that there was no going back on the bill as it met all constitutional requirement and was enacted in response to the desires of Benue people.

Gov Ortom argued that: "Our Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law 2017 has the potential to launch Nigeria into 21st century livestock production with international best practice in animal husbandry.

" Today, we live in the 21st century and open grazing is obsolete in most countries of the world. In Europe, America, Asia and in many countries in Africa, pastoralism has long given way to ranching. 

"How can Nigeria then, still be battling with a problem of pastoralism that in other countries has been solved over a century ago? 

"According to the United States Department of Agriculture, USDA, India has 303 million cattle, Brazil, 226 million, China, 100 million, USA, 93 million, Argentina, 53 million and Australia 27 million.

" All these countries ranch their animals. Nigeria has less than 20 million cattle which could also be easily ranched. Unfortunately, the cows are allowed to either roam the streets freely or encroach on people's farms and other investments creating all sorts of social and economic upheavals. Abuja is the only Federal Capital in the world that I know of, where cattle are allowed to move freely and graze on beautification flowers".

Gov Ortom further enunciated the benefits of a ranching policy in Nigeria stressing  that it will provide avenue for both crop farmers and those involved in animal husbandry to increase production using modern technology. 

"The Netherlands in Europe and Swaziland in Africa are both small countries who export a huge amount of beef through the practice of ranching. With arable land of just 2% and population less than 9% that of Nigeria, the Ranches and Animal Husbandry Agriculture subsector of The Netherlands exported meat worth over 21billion EUROs, (about 9 trillion Naira), between 2016 and 2018 only. 

"Ranching by law and policy therefore, if properly implemented in our country, will also yield similar results and have great positive impact on our economic diversification dreams and our food security", he submitted.