by Dater, Pekop Dawu

The governor of Plateau State and Chairman Northern Governors Forum, His Excellency Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to implement the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) towards ending the farmers/herders crisis in Nigeria.

Mr Lalong, who is the chairperson of the Northern Governors Forum, visited the Aso Villa in Abuja on Friday and spoke with journalists after seeing President Muhammadu Buhari.

The governor said he was a member of a committee set up to make recommendations on the best way to put an end to the crisis.

“Incidentally, I am a member of the livestock committee under the Vice President and I represent the North Central. That was the purpose of setting up that committee and that committee made far-reaching recommendations and then funds were to be made available to pilot states, Plateau and about nine states are the pilot states, to address some of these issues.

President Muhammadu Buhari received in audience the Plateau State Governor, H.E. Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong, at the State House.

Governor Lalong said the implementation of the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) would go a long way in addressing the farmers/herders crisis.

“The issue was to move away from the old ways of rearing cows and to find modern ways of doing it. In some places, they will do it that way, but then in a confined environment, which was agreed to by all.
“And that is part of the point I was raising, to remind Mr President to hasten the implementation of the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP). We are still left with the herdsmen/farmers problem, the implementation of the NLTP will go a long way to address these issues.”

“Either we like it or not, we need cows and it is also some people’s occupation. But where it leads to conflicts and raises hazards like insecurity, we have to address. While we tolerate it, we must still address it because it is some people’s means of economic livelihood. But it shouldn’t be posing hazards of insecurity to anybody,” he said.

The National Economic Council (NEC) had in 2019 approved the NLTP with the major aim of investing in the livestock sector to provide ranches and mitigate the escalating crisis between pastoralists and farmers.

On security, Mr Lalong commended the recent change of the service chiefs, restating the commitment of Northern governors to tackling insecurity.

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Implement National Livestock Transformation Plan — Lalong tells Buhari