The impeccable aspirations of section 14 (1)(b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) (the “Constitution”), establish that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” Although the purposive intent therein is excellent, however, the practical applicability and enforcement of that provision is at best variable, and at worst, non-existent, regarding the political dynamite of open cattle grazing in Nigeria by pastoralists.
How can cattle grazing constitute political dynamite in Nigeria in the 21st Century, when the progressive world is at the cutting edge of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and computational thinking, which traverses transformative healthcare, precision defence systems, innovative fin-techs, robotics, social media, space exploration etc?
The legendary soul music legend, Marvin Gaye, in 1971, 53 years ago, recorded the hit song “What’s going on?” Although the context at the time was social upheaval in the United States, the same question could be posed within the extant subject matter. How is it that Nigeria is unable to effectively grapple with the banal issue of open grazing which commenced in Georgia and Florida, USA, in 1605?
The poser neatly segues into the recurrent lethal clashes between farmers and cattle herders, which has directly triggered loss of lives, displacements of farmers from their ancestral lands and extensive property destruction. Where is the government in all this and what imaginative policies have been executed? Afterall, cattle business is a private enterprise just like fish farming, pig farming, poultry farming, and snail farming in the country and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of farmers nationwide depend on all, not one, of these farming models.
What, then, underpins the ferociously devastating footprints of open cattle grazing in Nigeria? How is livestock farming developed and executed, applying modern practices, in an environmentally sustainable, peaceful and economically beneficial manner in progressive countries?
For starters, the global revenue meat market is approximately $1,460.00 billion in 2024 and market projections forecasting annual growth by 6.12% (compound annual growth rate 2024-2029). According to Statista’s 2024 analysis, China has generated the highest revenue in meat production US$273 billion; United States (US$131.60 billion); Brazil (US$37.07 billion); Canada (US$31.06 billion); United Kingdom (US$30.88 billion); Spain (US$22.70 billion), and Russia (US$22.60 billion).
Plus, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Agency asserts that livestock contributes 40% of the global value of agricultural output, supporting the livelihoods, food and nutrition security of over 1.3 billion people. These are huge numbers and the significance exposes the reality that the global livestock industry is a huge revenue catalyst and employment creator, which alleviates poverty reduction, food security and agricultural development.
In all those countries, modern agricultural practices, technology, and ranching are consistently utilised in livestock farming and meat production. Take Brazil, with 230 million cattle, where cattle ranching is a mega industry and the country exported 2 million tonnes of beef in 2022 and 2023. Its leading beef export destinations are China, United States, Russia, and Egypt; thus, generating huge foreign exchange earnings (US$37.07 billion) for the country in 2024 alone.
Ranching is equally pervasive in each of those countries ditto technology-enabled dairy production; animal genomics, which helps livestock producers evaluate cattle genetic risks and potential profitability; traceability, which tracks cattle across entire supply chains from farms to forks; precision farming etcetera.
In short, the combination of ranching, adoption of modern technologies in the agri-business value chain is contributing to economic development on those countries, without adversely impacting people’s lives, and lethal consequences of death and destruction in those nations.
Although Nigeria’s livestock industry is worth a whopping N30 trillion ($19.8 billion), the country relies extensively on imported dairy products, given underperforming local production capacity and open cattle grazing is all-pervasive. The latter is compounded by adverse impacts of climate change and desertification, land scarcity and competition for limited land resources which, perversely, unites farmers and herdsmen/pastoralists in deadly conflicts.
This dynamic is heightened by the provisions of the Land Use Act 1978, section 1 of which, vests all land comprised in the territory of each Nigerian state in the Governor and for such land shall to be held in trust and administered for the common use of all Nigerians; and, section 2 (1) (b) therein, which vests all non-urban land under the control and management of the local government of each state where the land is situated.
Wikipedia asserts that “herder-farmer conflicts in Nigeria are a series of disputes over arable land resources across Nigeria between mostly-Muslim Fulani herders (pastoralists) and the mostly-Christian non-Fulani farmers. The conflicts have been especially prominent in the Middle Belt (North Central) since the return of democracy in 1999. More recently, they have deteriorated into attacks by Fulani herdsmen.”
In sharper perspective, the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON), reports that the farmer versus herder conflicts has killed over 19,0000 people and geographically upended several hundreds of thousands of persons, taking on an ethno-religious colouration which is exploited by extremist terrorist groups. The 2024 Global Terrorism Index for instance, ranked Nigeria, amongst Pakistan and Somalia as “the countries most consistently impacted by terrorism since 2011.” And, as recently as January 2024, Al-Jazeera reported that suspected Fulani herders killed approximately 30 people, destroyed schools, houses and worship centres in Mangu, Plateau state.
Thus, rather being a blessing to the nation’s economic fortunes, an employment and poverty alleviation catalyst, a foreign exchange earner and a viable opportunity for enduring economic diversification, open-cattle grazing, and its lethal outcomes in Nigeria, has accomplished the very opposite.
The burning question then becomes: what actionable, practical and timebound policies will the government implement, with the political will, to address this lingering problem which has dislocated social order, claimed thousands of lives, displaced hundreds of thousand, and precariously upturns national security?
Although no singular policy response will be perfect nevertheless, the foregoing illustrates that open cattle grazing in Nigeria is unsustainable given its deadly ramifications nationwide. Therefore, serious considerations and political courage, should be summoned to embed optional ranching in willing states across the country.
The extant National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) is helpful in this regard. However, it needs to be adaptable to the unique circumstances of each state given the extremely delicate nuances of Nigeria’s multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural geopolitical and federal configuration.
The pivotal issue concerns all well-meaning Nigerians and stakeholders not least, the people’s elected democratic representatives at the National Assembly; where “A Bill for an Act to Establish National Animal Husbandry and Ranches Commission for the Regulation, Management, Preservation and Control of Ranches Throughout Nigeria; and for Connected Purposes 2024” has scaled the Second Reading at the Senate.
And whilst the debate rages in Parliament, s.14 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, the supreme of the law, the grundnorm, mandates that that “the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a State based on the principles of democracy and social justice.”
The positive, reasonable and logical inference therein, is that assuming, without conceding that the National Assembly passes the aforementioned Bill, and that it receives Presidential assent; the contention here is that its provisions cannot displace the pre-conditionality of the consent of each individual state of the federation to accede or reject to land acquisition within its jurisdiction for the purposes of ranching or animal husbandry.
Because, this would materially breach the provisions of the Land Use Act 1978 (supra). Plainly therefore, careful reflection and effective dialogue with concerned stakeholders will be required as the Bill meanders through the legislative process.
In conclusion, the Federal Government should be alive to, and execute its overriding duty of care to all Nigerians per s.14 (1) (b) of the Constitution supra, in the necessary quest for peace and prosperity for all citizens, modernism, nixing terrorism, economic diversification and a demonstrably equitable playing field for all participants in the country’s agro-business (or subsistence agriculture) supply chain.
The foregoing therefore invokes an obligation on the national leadership, enunciated by the 19th Century American Ralph Waldo Emerson, atop this treatise, to innovate and leave a positive trail on this vexed issue!
Ojumu is the Principal Partner at Balliol Myers LP, a firm of legal practitioners and strategy consultants in Lagos, Nigeria, and the author of The Dynamic Intersections of Economics, Foreign Relations, Jurisprudence and National Development.