TheCable

The Accountability, Candour and Transparency (ACT) Network, a civil society group, has asked the federal government to adopt creative solutions to end open grazing in the country.

In a statement on Wednesday, Ositheame Agiode, rules and ethics director of ACT Network, asked the government to make nationwide consultations and engagements with key stakeholders on the process.

The group said Nigeria is facing an unprecedented national security crisis as a result of the herder-farmer crisis, which requires urgent solutions before it escalates further.

“Beyond this, there is a need to adopt creative solutions to the issue of nomadic livestock breeding, an anachronism in this age,” the group said.

”We call on the State Governments in particular to IMMEDIATELY craft policies and regulations to guide the establishment commercial ranches across Nigeria and also enact state laws prohibiting OPEN GRAZING across the states, but with a moratorium of at least one year to allow establishment of ranches to accommodate desirous cattle owners.

“After the moratorium, open grazing must be totally eradicated across the country. This solution requires will power as well as wide ranging consultations and engagements across the key stakeholders but may be the only way to go.

“There is a need for a renewed focus on the problems of global warming and desertification as well as a serious look at our exploding population to adopt proactive policies to rein it in. These are medium term issues but again, it is critical that action be taken about them immediately.

“Beyond the internal, there is a need to pay attention to our immediate international neighborhood and the happenings there for our security. It is not enough to maintain an external affairs ministry and intelligence services whilst paying no attention to the criminality in the Gulf of Guinea or the disorder and anarchy around us particularly to the North of our border.

“Over and above all of this, this crisis draws attention to the importance of good governance and our failures over the years to master its proper art. We strongly urge our governments at all levels to URGENTLY look at these proposed solutions and take the actions needed to save the country from avoidable calamity.”

The federal government proposed ranching as a solution to the herder-farmer crisis, but some state governments said they will not give out land for that purpose.