by Ayo Akinfe
Given that Tinubu is first and foremost going to be judged by what he does to combat insecurity, I am surprised that he has not unveiled an animal husbandry policy which looks like this
[1] We have flogged the issue of cattle ranches to death and called for the construction of several mega ones across northern Nigeria. Tinubu has to pledge to send a bill to the National Assembly on day one, making open grazing illegal
[2] Nigeria’s six biggest states by landmass will each be home to a mega ranch of at least 50,000 square kilometres. Borno, Niger, Taraba, Yobe, Bauchi and Kaduna all have the land to spare for this
[3] Smaller states will be allowed to operate mini ranches of say 1,000 square kilometres. Oyo, Cross River, Edo, Delta, Ogun and Ondo states for instance can all afford to spare this amount of land
[4] Research from the US has shown that celebrities such as actor, Harrison Ford, CNN founder, Ted Turner and former talk show host David Letterman, all own private ranches. Back out west side in the US, you can get a decent sized ranch for about $10m. Investors like Alh Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola, Mike Adenuga Jnr, Folorunsho Alakija, Tony Elumelu, etc should be encouraged to venture into the sector
[5] These six mega ranches will effectively be mini towns with accompanying veterinary clinics, animal feed compounding plants, leather tanning factories, dairy plants, police stations, technical training colleges, etc
[6] With nomadism totally outlawed, livestock will only be moved from ranches to market by rail. This will entail building up a national railway network connecting all 774 local government areas in the country
[7] While all this development is happening, local ranches will be required to furnish the market. I believe that two ranches in each geo-political zone should be sufficient to meet local needs
[8] Over the long term, the mega ranches of northern Nigeria should be for export needs. Domestic demand can be met by local ranches, allowing the mega facilities to focus on generating something like $50bn in export earnings. Maybe Nigeria has accidentally stumbled on the perfect substitute for crude oil here
[9] This now raises the question of how many private investors in southern Nigeria have $10m to invest in a cattle ranch? I cannot look any further than our evangelical churches at the moment. I challenge anyone to name me a set of millionaires with deeper pockets than pastorprueners in Nigeria at the moment
[10] Just imagine the number of jobs this would create, the amount of wealth and tax it would generate and the contribution it would make to Nigerian protein nutrition. Bishop David Oyedepo recently announced plans to build a mega church. I think he should be asked to put such plans on hold as the livestock and ranching matter is more urgent and pressing. I am sure several governors will happily make land available for an Oyedepo Ranch.
