Provide Ranches Before You Ban Open Grazing – Governor Masari Tells FG

Katsina State Governor, Bello Masari has disagreed with the practice of open grazing, saying herdsmen ought to learn to graze their cattle in one place.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Governor Masari condemned the movement of herders from one part of the country to another to graze their cattle.

He, however, supported the opinion that the government ought to make provision for where animals would stay before banning grazing.

He said, “We intend to have a law banning (cattle) roaming but before we do that, we would make provisions for where the animals would stay.”

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Governor Masari added that it is un-Islamic for herdsmen to have animals that they cannot feed but have to go to other people’s land and farm, explaining that it is not right for such practice to continue.

He revealed that the Federal Government has so far disbursed N6.2 billion for the project as part of the efforts to kick start the ranching programme.

Governor Masari said the Katsina State government has invested N6.2 billion with the objective to have Fulanis stay in one place which has already started including the N6.2 billion given to the state by the federal government.

Recall that the Southern Governors Forum had earlier announced a ban on open grazing of cattle across states in the region.

However, a few of them (Southern governors) signed the law banning open grazing before the September 1, 2021 deadline, others failed to do so.