By Joel Okwara
The Nigerian Senate has passed a bill to establish the National Animal Husbandry and Ranches Commission after a heated debate on Wednesday, June 5, 2024.
The bill, sponsored by Senator Titus Tartenger Zam, representing Benue North West, is meant to control and regulate cattle rearing ranching businesses across the country.
Explaining the general principles of the bill, Zam said that, “The proposed National Animal Husbandry and Ranches Commission is for the management, preservation, and control of ranches throughout Nigeria.”
The bill, however, met stiff opposition from Senator Danjuma Goje from Gombe and his counterpart from Kebbi, Senator Adamu Aliero.
Both lawmakers and former governors argued that cattle rearing and ranching activities were more in the North than in other parts of the country, reasoning that lawmaking should be for the entire country and not for a section.
Goje specifically maintained that cattle routes begin from the far north and end in Lokoja as “the route does not extend to the South.”
In his contribution, Senator Hussein Babangida Uba, representing Jigawa North-West, called for extra caution in passing the bill, given its trail of controversies in the past.
Other senators, who supported the bill, contended that the proposed commission would manage the farmers/herders crisis, hence, it should be passed.
The bill, passed after it was put to a voice vote by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, was referred to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Judiciary and Legal Matters, to be reverted in four weeks.
