Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, on Wednesday, knocked the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria for saying that a cow may cost up to N2 million with the anti-grazing law.
According to Adams, the people of Southern Nigeria, especially the Yoruba people in the South-West will start eating fish and other alternatives to beef.
He also said the North can’t use its cattle bought by the people of Southern Nigeria to threaten the people.
Adams spoke on Wednesday as a guest on PUNCH Online interview programme, The Roundtable.
Adams was reacting to a statement credited to MACBAN Zonal Secretary for South-West, Maikudi Usman, during a one-day public hearing organised by the state House of Assembly on the anti-open grazing bill on September 8, 2021.
Lagos consumes over 6,000 heads of cattle daily and over 1.8 million heads of cattle annually, according to the State Commissioner for Agriculture, Abisola Olusanya.
Speaking on the programme, Adams commended the Southern governors for banning open grazing in the region and for supporting the move with legal backing.
He said, “Countries are moving towards creating a secured environment for their people and in a situation where a profession within agriculture is creating problems, creating insecurity for us in every region, the governors of the South have right to decide how to protect the lives and property of their citizens.
“I agree totally with the Southern Governors on anti-grazing laws and I believe the best thing to do now is to implement that law and to watch the states and to even appeal to them that they should sign that bill backed their state assemblies into law because it is very important because of their citizens.
“If they said cows will cost two million naira, if it is too costly, we can subscribe to be eating fish and all other content that is eatable that we can use to balance our meals because our lives are very important – if you are lifeless, you can’t eat cow, if you are in an unsafe environment, you can’t eat cow.
“When you are living in a panic environment, there would be no economic buoyancy because investors will not come and invest in that environment.
“If they said that cows will be too expensive, we too will start our initiative based on ranching, we will start our own agricultural system and try to encourage our people to rear cows within our region. The Western Region had done it before and it succeeded by giving us our own livestock through the agricultural ministry.”
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