Connect with us

Headline

Open Grazing Ban: Wike Faces Hurdles In FCT As Miyetti Allah Talks Tough

Published

on

As part of his avowed commitment to restore the status of Abuja as the Federal Capital Territory, the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, recently announced an end to open-grazing of cattle.

There have been several efforts in the past to reposition Abuja and put it on the world map.

Difficult to contend with is the bad odour and the ugly sight of dung from animals, dropped at every corner of the city which attract flies, putting residents at risk of contracting diseases.

Advertisement

The dangers attached to open and unrestricted grazing, not only in the Federal Capital Territory, cannot be overemphasised.

DAILY POST reports that a former Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT, Dino Melaye, had vowed to end the movement of animals in the FCT and had once directed the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Mohammed Bello, to slaughter cows found in the city centre.

Melaye had noted that the herdsmen have continued to move their cattle in the Abuja metropolis despite several warnings to their owners by the authorities.

Advertisement

“Honourable Minister, the Senate as an institution is not happy at how Fulani herdsmen continue to move their cows across the city centre, which we are aware you have given directive against some time ago.

“From now, get knives and ask your men to slaughter cows found in the capital city or prosecute herdsmen seen with cows in the city centre with a fine of N50, 000 per cow. This order must be carried out,” Melaye said.

However, whatever effort the former Kogi Senator and others put to end open grazing in the FCT did not come to fruition.

Advertisement

But Wike has now taken the gauntlet.

Few hours after his swearing in, he declared, “I will step on toes, the big and mighty; I will step on your toes if you are doing something wrong,” insisting that herders can move their cattle outside the city but would no longer be allowed to graze on the grasses used for the beautification of the city.

READ ALSO: Wike Sacks 21 Heads Of FCTA Agencies, Companies [Full List[

Advertisement

Now the question is, how does the Minister intend to drive the herdsmen out of the city centre without putting in place measures that would ensure they continue doing their business and earning their livelihood as legitimate citizens.

And experts suggest that it would create a similar situation to the ban on Okada, street hawking, and demolishing of shops in Abuja without providing alternative measures to the affected people.

It could also be compared to the removal of fuel subsidies without proper consultations and preparation to cushion the effect.

Advertisement

A concerned citizen remarked that stopping herdsmen from moving their cows around the FCT could be a herculean task for the new FCT Administration and so, it requires that serious planning and proper consultation with the appropriate stakeholders are made.

The Minister was rather more subtle when he talked about the issues last weekend.

Wike said, “We will consult with the herdsmen to see how we will stop [open grazing] because we cannot allow cows inside the city.

Advertisement

“They can be outside the city because the grasses are outside the city. The grass in the city was planted to beautify the city. It is not that one that they would eat. so, we will discuss…”

Speaking with DAILY POST, the National President of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Baba Othman Ngelzarma, said they are looking forward to meeting the FCT Minister in order to table before him some of their challenges, which among them are the large dysfunctional grazing reserves.

“The minister has said that he would invite the cattle owners before making a decision. That he would not do something that someone will come out to say they were not contacted.

Advertisement

“So this is the situation that we always want. We know Abuja is a city and cows are not supposed to move around or roam about the city. It’s very embarrassing. We are all civilised people.

“Even during the era of the former Minister, we had a series of discussions on this. We had an agreement that no cows should move in the central city area. But in the periphery, in the sahel they can move because all the grazing reserves they have have been taken over from them by the farmers.

“We have grazing reserves in Abuja here that have been taken over by farmers. So we need someone of Wike’s disposition to come and settle this once and for all.

Advertisement

“We have about four grazing reserves around Abuja here but they require development, they require other things in them before you stop these guys from moving around.

“Because the whole of Abuja is a grazing reserve that was taken over by the Federal Capital. But this does not mean they have the right to move because it is Federal Capital Territory and the pride of every Nigerian; it is so embarrassing in the central city area.

READ ALSO: NLC Draws Battle Line Over Wike’s Demolition Plan In Abuja

Advertisement

“This is the agreement we have with the former Minister. But they can go around in the rural areas because the grazing reserves are not developed and there’s no pasture in it and farmers are gradually encroaching on them.

“This is why we want to have interaction with Wike himself because we know he is a gentle man and that he understands the dynamics and that this will give us the opportunity for the grazing reserves to be developed.

“And we know Wike will develop them. He will recollect our grazing lands and develop them. We are yearning to interact with him. We want to have a discussion with him on how we can seek out these problems. It’s very wrong for cows to roam in the city, we know.

Advertisement

“But mind you, not all the cows roaming the city belong to the local pastoralists. Some of these cows are owned by big men in the city who are employing the pastoralists to graze for them but that’s notwithstanding, whatever it is, cows are not supposed to roam in the central city area.

“But because the grazing reserves are not developed we have to consider the pastoralists too. There are places reserved for them to graze their cows but those places are not developed.

“No water, grazes or any form of infrastructure. They deserve to be developed for the interest of pastoralists and for the sake of justice and fairness.

Advertisement

‘We know Wike. He is the one to do this job for us because he’s the aggressive type and with his disposition, he’ll return and develop our grazing land for us. Whenever he invites us, we’re ready to come and meet him and sort out this problem once and for all,” he declared.

However, a sister organisation to MACBAN, the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, has a slightly different view about the movement of cows in the FCT or any other city in the country.

The National Secretary of the body, Saleh Alhassan Kubah, who spoke to our correspondent, said nobody can drive the cows away or stop them from grazing anywhere in the north.

Advertisement

According to him, the former Rivers State Governor should rather focus on how to develop the city of Abuja instead of talking about cows.

He said that until the government is able to make available grazing areas for cattle, it would be a futile move to uproot herders from the FCT, adding that most of the cows seen around Abuja belong to the city elites.

“Where is the grazing land in Abuja? Is it inside the building they will graze? The thing is, Wike is not consequential. We have seen Ortom come and go.

Advertisement

“So we don’t want to engage Wike, who has to take ‘Ogogoro’ [Alcoholic drink] before he goes to the office every morning.

“You’ve not heard it before? He said it himself. Let him deliver services in the FCT. We are waiting to see the good works he will do. You know he’s working for our party, so I can’t criticise him.

“He’s our minister. So I don’t want to start fighting our minister. It’s not consequential because there’s no grazing area in Abuja.

Advertisement

“All those cattle you see there belong to the elite there, so he’ll find a way for them. Wike doesn’t merit our responses. Let him deal with the massive abandoned buildings.

READ ALSO: 5bn Palliative: FCT Considering Transportation, Food – Wike

“Let him collect tax from all those houses nobody is occupying. Let him develop the city. Let him take care of the indigenous people that have been neglected, the Gwari people.

Advertisement

“He’s from Port Harcourt, an Ikwerre man. He knows how they behave in Port Harcourt. If the Gwari people give him 10 percent of how Ikwerre people behave in Port Harcourt, he will know how to deal with them. Let him develop the rural areas, the satellite towns and give them amenities. Power is transient.

“No matter how it is, he will leave very soon. We can’t engage him. He can’t get new information from us. He’s an attention seeker. Is there any grazing land around the Villa?

“Or, is it the sight of cows that people don’t want to see? Are cows not the beauty of the Northern geography? You want to eat cows but you don’t want to see them, is it not contradictory?

Advertisement

“If there are no cows in the northern geography what you will be seeing is a crisis caused by the spirits of the land. The land won’t be stable [because the cows need to move for the spirits to be happy]. It is their environment.

“He can’t chase the cows away. Who will chase the cows away in the northern territory? Nobody can chase them. We’re going nowhere.

“Let him revoke the lands in the FCT, why is giving them more time? I thought he would just revoke them at once.

Advertisement

“In the Abuja development plan, there’s no grazing area in the FCT or AMAC area council…

“Let him handle the issues of insecurity in Abuja. We’re not and will never be his problem.”

And in an interview with DAILY POST, the Director, Animal Husbandry Services in the Agricultural and Rural Development, FCT, Hajiya Umma Abubakar, outlined the plans already in place to settle the herders in comfortable zones.

Advertisement

According to her, the establishment of the Grazing Reserves is not only aimed at resettling the Fulani pastoralists but to provide the enabling environment for them to engage in livestock activities that are comparable to the best anywhere in the world.

According to her, plans are already in place to not only develop the four grazing reserves in Abuja, but turn them into economic hubs for both the herders and their communities.

She said that the Minister of the FCT and the Minister of State for the FCT are all very much interested in settlement of herders in the nation’s capital city.

Advertisement

READ ALSO: I’d Have Expelled Wike From PDP If I Had Such Power – Dele Momodu

She explained that, “To address the issues of compensation and bringing an end to the incessant clashes between the Fulani and the local communities, the Secretariat embarked on a comprehensive enumeration exercise to identify the genuine inhabitants that will be compensated to ensure that no member of the community is left out.

“The plan of the FCT Administration in development of the grazing reserves will no doubt be complimented by the Special Agricultural Processing Zone (SAPZ) Project which the Africa Development Bank (AfDB & the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) are co-funding.

Advertisement

“I can assure you that the SAPZ Project is going to address the issue of open grazing because one of its components which is called Agriculture Transformation Centres (ATC) focuses on building the capacities of all the groups in different aspect of the Livestock value chains, such as production of quality feeds, milk processing etc.

“Water will also be provided at the centres to ensure that they are able to conveniently fatten their animals without them moving outside the reserves.”

Speaking on how the government intends to identify and differentiate between indigenous herders from migrant herders, especially those from outside the country, she added that, “The profiling that we are conducting on a regular basis is to help us to identify new and old Fulani herdsmen.

Advertisement

“We are working with security agencies, as well as the communities who know those that are engaged in genuine activities without constituting any form of threat to the society.”

On the issue of continued resistance from some host communities who are against the establishment of the grazing reserves, the director said, “We are working closely with the host communities on the need for peaceful co-existence.

“We equally have been engaging the groups to sensitise them on what they all stand to benefit from the development of the reserves.

Advertisement

“Livestock activities do not only involve the Fulani. Even the crop farmers can engage in numerous production activities such as livestock feed while they can equally benefit from the byproducts of the cattle as manures.

“The plan by the Honourable Minister of the FCT to meet with all the stakeholders will give an impetus to achieving the desired objective.

“In the same vein, the minister of State for FCT has assured that she will provide the necessary support in making sure that the development plans for the four grazing reserves in Abuja are implemented and improved upon.”

Advertisement

DAILY POST

Headline

White House Threatens Mass Firings Amid Stalled Shutdown Talks

Published

on

Efforts to swiftly end the US government shutdown collapsed Wednesday as Democrats in Congress went home without resolving a funding stand-off with President Donald Trump and the White House threatened public sector jobs.

Federal funding expired at midnight after Trump and lawmakers failed to agree on a deal to keep the lights on, prompting agencies to wind down services, while the White House warned of “imminent” firings of public sector workers.

Senate Democrats — who are demanding extended health care subsidies for low-income families — refused to help the majority Republicans approve a House-passed bill that would have reopened the government for several weeks while negotiations continue.

Advertisement

Voting in the Senate is now adjourned until Friday, frustrating hopes for a quick resolution.

Around 750,000 federal employees are expected to be placed on furlough — a kind of enforced leave, with pay withheld until they return to work.

READ ALSO:Judge Throws Out Trump’s $15bn ‘Rage’ Lawsuit Against New York Times

Advertisement

Essential workers, such as the military and border agents, may be forced to work without pay and some will likely miss their checks beginning next week. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association voiced fears for air safety as more than 2,300 members were sent home.

The crisis has higher stakes than previous shutdowns, with Trump racing to enact hard-right policies that include slashing government departments and threatening to turn many of the furloughs into mass firings.

Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters the administration was “working with agencies across the board to identify where cuts can be made… and we believe that layoffs are imminent.”

Advertisement

The Department of Energy announced plans to terminate clean energy projects, all in blue states, according to White House official Russell Vought, who said the slashed funding had been used to advance “the Left’s climate agenda”.

The Department of Transportation also froze nearly $18 billion in federal funding for major infrastructure projects in New York, which Governor Kathy Hochul called “political payback”.

READ ALSO:Putin Has ‘Let Me Down’, Trump Laments As UK State Visit Ends

Advertisement

– ‘Ridiculous’ –

Shutdowns are a periodic feature of gridlocked Washington, although this is the first since a record 35-day pause during Trump’s first term in 2019.

They are unpopular because services used by ordinary voters, from national parks to permit applications, become unavailable.

Advertisement

“I think our government needs to learn how to work together for the people and find a way to make things not happen like this,” said Terese Johnston, a 61-year-old retired tour guide visiting Washington from California as the government shut down.

“You compromise. You find ways. So everybody gives a little bit, everybody takes a little bit, and things work.”

Democrats — spurred by grassroots anger over the expiring health care subsidies and Trump’s dismantling of government agencies — have been withholding Senate votes to fund the government as leverage to try and force negotiations.

Advertisement

READ ALSO:Trump Considering Deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia To Uganda

As the messaging war over the shutdown intensified, Vice President JD Vance took center stage at a White House briefing normally headed by Leavitt to upbraid Democrats over their demands.

“They said to us, ‘we will open the government, but only if you give billions of dollars of funding for health care for illegal aliens.’ That’s a ridiculous proposition,” Vance said in a rare appearance in the briefing room.

Advertisement

US law demands that anyone who presents at a publicly funded emergency room is treated, regardless of their ability to pay. But it bars undocumented immigrants from receiving the health care benefits Democrats are demanding, and the party has not called for a new act of Congress to change that.

– No compromise –

Republicans in the House of Representatives have already passed a stop-gap funding fix to keep federal functions running through late November while a longer-term plan is thrashed out.

Advertisement

READ ALSO:Why I Plotted President Trump’s Assassination – 50-yr-old Woman

But the 100-member Senate does not have the 60 votes required to send it to Trump’s desk, and Democrats say they won’t help unless Republicans compromise on their planned spending cuts — especially in health care.

Senate Republican leaders, who have just one rebel in their own ranks, need eight Democrats to join the majority and rubber-stamp the House-passed bill.

Advertisement

They got three moderates to cross the aisle in an initial vote Tuesday and were hoping to peel off five more as the shutdown chaos starts to bite. But Wednesday’s result went the same way.

Congress is not voting Thursday out of respect for the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday but the Senate returns to work on Friday and may be in session through the weekend.

The House is not due back until next week.

Advertisement

AFP

Continue Reading

Headline

NIS Begins Crackdown On Foreigners With Expired Visas

Published

on

The Nigeria Immigration Service has commenced a nationwide crackdown on foreign nationals who have overstayed their visas or breached entry conditions, following the expiration of a three-month amnesty granted by the Federal Government.

The amnesty, which opened on July 5 and lapsed at midnight on September 30, allowed foreigners with irregular immigration status to regularise their stay without penalties.

With the expiration of the amnesty period, effective October 1, 2025, enforcement actions will commence nationwide against foreign nationals who have overstayed their visa or violated their entry conditions,” NIS spokesperson, Akinsola Akinlabi, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Advertisement

READ ALSO:US Lifts Restrictions On Visa Validity For Ghanaians, Leaves Nigeria’s Unchanged

The exercise targets holders of expired Visa on Arrival, expired single and multiple-entry short visit or business visas, and individuals with expired Comprehensive Expatriate Residence Permits and Automated Cards.

Foreigners caught in violation face removal, daily fines, or entry bans. Overstayers of less than three months risk deportation, a $15 daily fine, or a two-year entry ban. Those who overstay between three months and one year face removal, daily fines, or a five-year entry ban, while individuals exceeding one year risk deportation and up to a 10-year or permanent entry ban.

Advertisement

The Service said the measures are aimed at safeguarding national security and ensuring strict compliance with immigration laws.

READ ALSO:H-1B Visas: Trump To Impose $100,000 Annual Fee For Skilled Foreign Workers

Interior Minister, Olubunmi, had earlier warned members of the diplomatic corps to advise their nationals to take advantage of the amnesty window, stressing that Nigeria’s immigration laws “are not meant to be abused but respected.”

Advertisement

The crackdown is part of wider reforms introduced in April, including a $15 daily surcharge for visa overstays, with a temporary moratorium to encourage compliance.

Continue Reading

Headline

Earthquake Kills 72 In Philippines

Published

on

The death toll from a powerful earthquake in the central Philippines rose to 72 on Thursday, officials said, as the search for the missing wound down and rescuers turned their focus to the hundreds injured and thousands left homeless.

The bodies of the three victims were pulled from the rubble of a collapsed hotel overnight Wednesday in the city of Bogo, near the epicentre of the 6.9-magnitude quake that struck on Tuesday.

We have zero missing, so the assumption is all are accounted for,” National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council spokesman Junie Castillo said, adding that some rescue units in Cebu province have been told to “demobilise”.

Advertisement

The government said 294 people were injured and around 20,000 had fled their homes. Nearly 600 houses were wrecked across the north of Cebu, and many are sleeping on the streets as hundreds of aftershocks shake the area.

READ ALSO:Three Arrested For Killing Philippine Governor

One of the challenges is the aftershocks. It means residents are reluctant to return to their homes, even those houses that were not (structurally) compromised,” Castillo said.

Advertisement

Cebu provincial governor Pamela Baricuatro appealed for help on Thursday, saying thousands needed safe drinking water, food, clothes, and temporary housing, as well as volunteers to sort and distribute aid.

President Ferdinand Marcos flew to Cebu with senior aides on Thursday to inspect the damage.

He also visited a partially damaged housing project in Bogo, built for survivors of the 2013 Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the deadliest natural disasters to hit the Philippines.

Advertisement

Eight bodies were “recovered from collapsed houses” in the project following the quake, a local government statement said.

READ ALSO:Philippine Mayor Gives Singles Extra Pay On Valentine’s Day

A tiny village chapel in Bogo was serving as a temporary shelter for 18-year-old Diane Madrigal and 14 of her neighbours after their houses were destroyed. Their clothes and food were scattered across the chapel’s pews.

Advertisement

The entire wall (of my house) fell, so I really don’t know how and when we can go back again,” Madrigal told AFP.

I am still scared of the aftershocks up to now; it feels like we have to run again,” she added.

Mother-of-four Lucille Ipil, 43, added her water container to a 10-metre (30-foot) line of them along a roadside in Bogo, where residents desperately waited for a truck to bring them water.

Advertisement

“The earthquake really ruined our lives. Water is important for everyone. We cannot eat, drink, or bathe properly,” she told AFP.

READ ALSO:Messi, Inter Miami Fight Back For 3-3 Draw At Philadelphia

“We really want to go back to our old life before the quake, but we don’t know when that will happen… Rebuilding takes a long time.”

Advertisement

Many areas remain without electricity, and dozens of patients were sheltering in tents outside the damaged Cebu provincial hospital in Bogo.

“I’d rather stay here under this tent. At least I can be treated,” 22-year-old Kyle Malait told AFP as she waited for her dislocated arm to be treated.

More than 110,000 people in 42 communities affected by the quake will need assistance to rebuild their homes and restore their livelihoods, according to the regional civil defence office.

Advertisement

Earthquakes are a near-daily occurrence in the Philippines, which is situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

Most are too weak to be felt by humans but strong and destructive quakes come at random, with no technology available to predict when and where they might strike.

AFP

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending