Bauchi State Governor Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed has directed for the creation of Ministry of Livestock in order to harness the state’s vast untapped potential to boost its economy.
The governor said this when he received the Co Chairman of the Presidential Livestock Reforms Implementation Committee Professor Attahiru Jega in Bauchi.
He said the new ministry will improve the livestock sector and benefit from the presidential committee’s initiatives.
Governor Bala highlighted Bauchi State’s vast natural resources, including its peaceful landscape and expansive forests, which, if properly harnessed, could significantly improve food security and create more job opportunities for the people.
He said that these resources could be leveraged to promote economic growth through strategic reforms in the livestock sector.
The Governor also pledged to set up a state-level committee tasked with designing a comprehensive strategy to guide the reforms in the livestock sector.
He said “The committee will be responsible for drafting a template for the state government’s approach in transforming the sector, in line with the vision of the Presidential Livestock Reforms Implementation Committee, and pledged his administration’s sincere commitment to create Ministry of Livestock in Bauchi to improve the state economy by taking advantage of the presidential committee on livestock reform.”
He said the peaceful atmosphere and large forest that Allah blessed the state with if harness in the best way will improve food security and create more job opportunities .
The cochair of the Presidential Livestock Reform Implementation Committee Proffesor Muhammad Attahiru Jega explained that the committee was in Bauchi considering the proactive interest of the State Governor in improving the state economy through the livestock sector which made him to invited the committee to the State with the aim of engaging critical stakeholders in the livestock sector to proffer possible way of improving livestock sector thereby improving the state economy.
He said there is tremendous impact that livestock sector play in improving the economy of a Nation and lamented that for over the years critical actors in the sector abandoned it and explained that the right time to unlock the chain in the sector is now.
Similarly, during the meeting with stakeholders in livestock production , Professor Jega said the presidential committee had submitted an inception report to Mr. President and recommended for the adoption of both ranching and open grazing, at least in the short term, to halt the recurring clashes between farmers and pastoralists across the country.
“We have now been able to produce what we call an Inception Report, which contains very wide ranging recommendations as to how our country can tap the potentials of the livestock sector, in terms of opening up the value-chain in this sector and ensuring that by so doing, we develop all sectors in the value-chains to enhance economic growth and development, create jobs, and also ensure that we are not only able to bring about food, feed and nutrition security, but we are also able to significantly begin to export many of the products that are associated with this sector”.
He explained that abandoning traditional pastoral activities overnight was impracticable, given the large number of people engaged in such activities. Jega said that the committee’s long-term objective was to promote intensive livestock production through ranching.
“But he said achieving this goal required a gradual transition, accommodating both ranching and open grazing for a period, adding that this incremental approach aims to eventually phase out extensive pastoralism.
Jega, a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), attributed past challenges and politicisation of the issue to the tendency to seek a single, simplistic solution.
He explained “Why we are promoting long-term objective is that we now have intensive live livestock production, that is a long-term objective, but you know you cannot wake one day and have that, you have to develop policies and frameworks that can accommodate both for a period of time while increasingly the objective is to have intensive livestock production, not to have extensive in the nature of pastoralism that we have now”.
“I think some of the challenges we have had in the past, and which also led to politicisation of the issues, is we are quick to develop a single frame of mind with regard to what the solution is, but in a complicated situation like we have, you have to really think in terms of incremental positive changes, but you must have a time frame within which this should be achieved.”
Jega said the report detailed several achievable targeted indicators within a 10-year time frame that would inform reforms in the livestock sector of Nigeria, “Key recommendations included establishing a Federal Ministry of Livestock Development with specific structures and functions which will separate the activities of livestock ministry with crops in the Ministry of Agriculture.”
He said the committee believed focused implementation could lead to significant improvements within 10 years, benefiting job creation, economic growth, and potential exports.
Jega also said the president had shown full support for the committee’s efforts, which also aimed to mitigate conflicts related to pastoralists and nomadic herders. He urged stakeholders that are yet to speak during the meeting to send their submission in writing to the committee.
