Nigeria: Plateau Nomads Shouldn't Have Been Expelled - Ruma

Abuja — Limited grazing reserves and pressure from farmers have often forced Fulani nomads to move in search of pasture and should not have been expelled by the Plateau state government , the Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Sayyadi Abba Ruma has said.

Nomads were recently expelled by the Plateau state government at the alleged instance of Wase local government council on suspicious mass movement to the state. In an interview with Daily Trust in Abuja, he said the expulsion exercise negates the established fact that human society is a continuous dialogue between migration and immigration. "From the 415 grazing reserves from nine million hectares, we cannot identify 60 reserves (small and big) and with about 90 percent of 64 million cattle, 12 million nomadic Fulanis roaming about from Kebbi to Obudu up to the Central African Republic painstakingly searching for water and pasture for 25 percent of their feed requirement and somebody waking up one day to start this expulsion exercise is not the solution to the problem. It's compounding the problem. Everybody is a settler where he is. The history of human society is the record of a continuous dialogue between migration and immigration. The history of state formation is about this demonstrative reality. So, what is important for us as a nation is to see how we can cope with this national menace by providing the much needed infrastructure in the reserves to allow for their nomadic life."

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