Osinbajo kick-starts livestock transformation plan

VICE-PRESIDENT Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday inaugurated the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) in Adamawa State.

He explained that the programme has nothing to do with the controversial Ruga.

The ceremony held at the Gongoshi Grazing Reserve in Mayo-Belwa Local Government Area.

Osinbajo said the programme is a well thought out scheme for effective use of land and water in a peaceful atmosphere.

A lot of controversy had trailed the introduction of the programme with many residents insinuating that the NLTP is another name for Ruga Settlement scheme, which has long been discarded by the Federal Government.

At the venue of the ceremony, some cultural groups that entertain guests carried placards and banners, stating conditions for the implementation of the programme.

Inscriptions on the placards included ‘No settlement for non-cattle Fulani’ and ‘No to mobile livestock husbandry’; others warned against allowing non-indigenous Fulani herders to benefit from the programme meant for the state.

The Vice-President, apparently conscious of the mood of the people, assured that the NLTP is tailored to build peace in communities and prevent the herdsmen/farmers’ conflicts that have troubled many states, including Adamawa.

He said the plan was drawn up in the height of the crisis to find a suitable way around it.

“Each state will determine its own model. This is not Ruga,” Osinbajo said.

The Vice-President said the Federal Government had not come to take any land in Adamawa but had allowed the state to decide on its own what land to allocate to the programme and how the programme would run.

Governor Ahmadu Fintiri also assured the residents that the NLTP has nothing to do with Ruga but a project he was convinced has the answers to perennial clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

The governor said he constituted a six-man committee within his first month in office to implement the programme in the state because of his belief in its potential to promote peaceful co-existence and grow the economy.

The Chairman of the Adamawa State Committee for the implementation of the NLTP, Prof Alikidon Voh, noted that out of Nigeria’s 415 grazing reserves, Adamawa State has 69, the highest number, out of which 38 had been gazetted.

He added that of the gazetted number, five had been earmarked for implementation of the NLTP in the state, including the Gongoshi Grazing Reserve and reserves in Jada, Song, Gombi and Maiha local government areas.

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