The proposed National Grazing Commission (1)

Over the last decade, the failure of states with large cattle populations to successfully develop grazing reserves and persuade pastoral nomads to adopt sedentary lifestyles, has thrown up numerous land adminstration issues.

Prominent among these is the controversial call by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) on the federal government to grant its 12 million members land rights in all the 36 states of the federation for grazing purposes. The other is the proposed bill to establish a National Grazing Commission that will acquire grazing reserves and establish cattle routes in all states of the country.

Historical accounts have it that the idea to set aside grazing reserves for Fulani cattle breeders dates back to 1963 when the Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, introduced the policy. In Kaduna state, headquarters of MACBAN, the first grazing reserve at Kachia was gazetted in 1987. A second one called Gayam grazing reserve is located in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of the state. It measures approximately 50 hectares and was the second reserve to be gazetted (signed into law) by the State Government. Five years ago, the reserve was reputed to have a school, a health centre and three bore-hole water pumps and a dam, thanks to support from the Millennium Development Goals Commission and the World Bank.

At that time, the Gayam grazing reserve had around 2,000 people already living within it even though it has a maximum capacity of up to 4,000 people and 100,000 cows.  True, the figure of sedentary nomads at Gayam reserve represented only a small percentage of MACBAN’s members who had adopted a sedentary lifestyle in 2010 but that they move away from nomadism was increasingly attractive to cattle rearers.

For one, desertification has been drying up sources of water in the North; clashes with farmers over land and water are increasing, sometimes leading to violence.  “At Gayam, several children of the community have benefited from the education they received at the local school and gone on to further education, with the ambition of returning to the community to work as doctors and vets”, a 2010 report by Project ENABLE, funded by the British Department for International Development (DFID) stated.  “The grazing reserves are a clear example of the benefits of a sedentary lifestyle”, the report authors concluded.

Getting many more of MACBAN’s members to move to the reserves is not an easy task. This is a job that MACBAN exists to accomplish. First, it seeks to convince the Kaduna State Government to set aside land for grazing reserves originally proposed back in the 1960s by Alhaji Ahmadu Bello of blessed memory. Secondly, MACBAN toils to convince its members to settle in the reserves and give up a nomadic way of life.

In 2010, the organization aimed to get at least two more grazing reserves officially recognised before the elections in 2011. Also, by 2010, MACBAN had appointed a full-time advocacy manager who had plans to make effective use of the media, starting with a slot on FRCN Kaduna’s Fulfulde language radio show.  This was considered an excellent opportunity to discuss cattle rearing issues and introduce new ideas on animal husbandry techniques to members via their communication medium of choice.

Project ENABLE’s documents describe MACBAN as being “unusual as a BMO (Business Memebership Organisation) in that its members do not pay fees; rather support for the association comes mostly from the powerful Board of Trustees, which is headed by the Sultan of Sokoto, the spiritual leader of Muslims in Nigeria”.

Project ENABLE has assisted MACBAN to improve its capacity to engage in effective advocacy. It does this by first diagnosing the key weaknesses which prevent BMOs from fully representing their members’ interests to government.  It then offers training and mentoring to implement a range of solutions: building advocacy capacity, improving communications with members, more effective fundraising and financial management and better use of research to push for evidence- based policy-making.

The frosty relationship between farmers and nomadic herders deserves the urgent attention of our politicians at all levels.

What are the causes of the frequent clashes across the country? What is responsible for the escalation in the number of such clashes in the southern part of the country? Is the current policy response adequate? What is the best approach to finding a lasting solution to the bloody conflicts? These and similar concerns will be taken up next week on this column.