Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule says he has endorsed the National Livestock Transformation Plan to tackle the challenges of open grazing by herders in the state.
Sule said this in a television interview Monday evening.
The governor explained he planned to settle herders by setting up grazing reserves in seven locations in the state, an initiative he said was taken in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the Netherlands Government.
Sule said he believes that the nomadic lifestyle of herders was not the way to go, but he wouldn’t go with the crowd about the anti-open grazing law because it is not working in many states it has been signed.
Five state governors, including Enugu, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Ondo and Lagos, have recently signed an anti-grazing bill into law, following a resolution reached at a meeting of Southern Governors’ Forum.
“One thing all the northern governors have decided, we said that the current method of open grazing is old-fashioned, outdated, and cannot be sustained,” he said.
“The best way to do that is if you have options for the people; it is very easy for Nasarawa to say in one week, we will go to the Assembly to go ahead and have an anti-grazing law.
“So what happens to the Fulani that are moving back and forth? If the Fulani know why it is not working, the best way is to give them something that works,” he said.
