Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has said that the Grazing Reserves Act of 1964 which President Muhammadu Buhari is bent on reviving was only applicable to northern Nigeria in the 1960s.
Falana who revealed this on Sunday June 13, 2021, argued that the Grazing Reserves Act of 1964 was not a law of general application because the “Western Region, Mid-Western Region and the Eastern Region had ranches for animal husbandry.”
Falana, therefore advised President Buhari to promote ranching instead of attempting to revive grazing routes.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria said this in a statement on Sunday titled, ‘President Buhari Should Embrace Ranching’.
The activist stated that in 2016 the Federal Government announced that it had acquired 55,000 hectares of land in 11 states for grazing of cattle.
“Shortly thereafter the Federal Government adopted cattle colony or Ruga Policy. But due to the opposition which greeted the concept of cattle colony in many quarters the Federal Government jettisoned the policy and adopted the Livestock Transformation Policy including ranching in 2018,” Falana recalled.
He noted that the Chairman of the sub-committee on farmer/herder crisis, Dave Umahi, who is also the Governor of Ebonyi State, disclosed that the Federal Government would bear 80 per cent of the sum of N100bn earmarked for ranching while participating states would support with N20bn and provision of lands for the programme.
