Leaders in the Southern and Central regions vowed to reject the Nigerian government’s plans to free up land for livestock

The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has vowed to resist any attempt to grab community land under the guise of the new National Livestock Policy introduced by the federal government.

The forum advised the government against handing over land to herders, who they accused of killing and displacing thousands of farmers in their communities.

The forum explained that animal husbandry is a privately driven economic enterprise, and emphasized that the government cannot disguise mandatory land acquisition for certain economic actors as a public interest.

In a statement issued by the chairman of the SMBLF, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, and another leader of the forum, Dr Bitrus Pogu, president of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF); Senator John Azuta-Mbata, president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide and Ambassador Godknows Igali, national chairman of PANDEF, said they stand firm with the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), which has rejected the scheme.

The group said it was “alarmed by the federal government’s brazen attempt to take over land belonging to ethnic communities in the Middle Belt under a sham pilot scheme introduced in the name of the New National Livestock Policy”.

“Let’s be clear: SMBLF is not against modern livestock production, animal husbandry or the development of livestock value chains. What we reject is the opaque, coercive and discriminatory manner in which these policies are being implemented for the exclusive benefit of nomadic Fulani herders,” he said.

The forum further stated, “it is surprising that this experiment is concentrated almost entirely in the Middle Belt, even though there are vast tracts of sparsely populated and unused land in many areas in the far North, where Fulani Emirs dominate much of the region”.

“This scheme is presented as a pilot project, but unless it is firmly opposed by the communities whose land is undergoing change, it will inevitably be expanded to other parts of the country, including the Southern states.”

Olaitan added, “SMBLF strongly suspects that the real aim of this policy is the creation of permanent settlement zones for nomadic Fulani tribal herders, whose violent activities over the years have contributed to the dispossession and occupation of thousands of square kilometers of land in the Middle Belt and even parts of the Southern states.”

Olaitan lamented that “in addition to the genocide they are accused of committing in the Middle Belt, they have rendered millions of people homeless. They cannot be given land belonging to the victims in return for the heinous crimes they committed.”

The statement also noted, “It is also a matter of record that some of these nomadic herders are not Nigerian citizens. Any policy that ignores this reality and allocates vast ancestral lands to them under state protection is unacceptable to the indigenous peoples of the Central and Southern regions.”

“We have seen similar efforts before under different names, including the rejection of the RUGA and Cattle Colony proposals, which were rejected by Nigerians because of their implications for land ownership and demographic restructuring. The SMBLF will not accept such policies.”

“We warn the Federal Government that the Central and Southern regions should not become dumping grounds due to controversial land policies. Our land belongs to our communities who depend on it for agriculture, housing, livelihoods and survival,” the forum added.