The Presidency and the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) have met to find a lasting solution to cows roaming the streets of the city centre of Abuja.
The meeting, held at the National Mosque in Abuja over the weekend, was convened by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of MACBAN, Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, and the Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Maiha.
Speaking at the forum which had leaders of pastoralists across the FCT area councils in attendance, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Livestock Development, Idris Abiola-Ajimobi, emphasised the commitment of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to finding lasting solutions to the challenges bedevilling pastoralists in the country.
He said: “We are here for a stakeholders’ engagement meeting. It is a gathering to dialogue with the livestock stakeholders to let them understand the efforts being made by the administration of President Tinubu.
“We are working together with the Ministry of Livestock Development and other relevant agencies to address the root causes of the problems.
”The issue of livestock moving around the streets of Abuja. We must first solve the issue of grazing reserves; we are working on ranches, and we are working on the Special Agro Industrial Processing Zone.
“We are also working on reviving the grazing reserves, providing feeds and ranches whereby pastoralists can find a safe zone to operate in to leave and coexist as well as have all the basic social amenities they need like feeds, water, the healthcare system, veterinary clinics and other essential services,” Abiola-Ajimobi said.
On his part, the Special Assistant to the Minister of Education on Almajiri and Out-of-School-Children Education, Dr. Balarabe Kakale,said the meeting also looked at the all-inclusive efforts of the Federal Ministry of Education in addressing challenges facing pastoralists including out-of-school crisis.
“The meeting interacted with all the stakeholders and leaders, mainly of MACBAN, in Abuja and surrounding states and unanimously came up with one very important resolution”,he said.
On his part, the National President of MACBAN, Alhaji Baba Othman-Ngelzarma, said the meeting was organised to address the concerns of cows roaming the city centre.
”And to also address the issue of education, particularly the issue of out-of-school children, of which the pastoralists’ children are the majority.
”Out of about 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, we believe 80 percent of them belong to the pastoralists’ children.
”So, the issues of concern were raised and addressed here.You can see the congregation; we want to make Abuja a model. We want to start practising it here and see how it is going to work for us”,he said.
Othman-Ngelzarma disclosed that a committee would be set up to find a lasting solution that would stop cows from roaming the city centre.
Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE), Prof Bashir Usman, lamented that rapid urbanisation was worsening Nigeria’s out-of-school crisis among pastoralist children, displacing families and shutting many children out of specialised nomadic schools.
The NCNE boss noted that parents often keep children at home due to the distance of conventional schools, while adolescents between 15 and 25 are increasingly idle and vulnerable.
He also disclosed that the Minister of Education has approved a flexible staffing model that would allow qualified locals to serve as community-based “facilitators” instead of conventional teachers, ensuring continuity even when families migrate.
