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The economic impact of animal husbandry is enormous and cannot just be relegated. However, the following two facts should be considered before any form of political alignment to avert future danger to the lives and properties of the good citizens of Kogi state.
Land Availability
The land in Kogi in comparison to other northern states like Kaduna, Niger, Katsina, Jigawa, Bauchi, Taraba, Adamawa, and Sokoto is like ratio 1:5. Donating our little land for cattle colonies, whose major owners are from the above states, is just like using a measly bucket to fetch water from the well to the sea or trying to cry more than the bereaved.
The land in Kogi East is brimful of cashew crop – the most exportable commodity in Nigeria, palm trees for palm oil. The remaining free land has been earmarked for continuous subsistence farming of staple food for the living sustenance of the natives.
The land in Kogi Central is a mixture of rocks and land, of which 30 % of the flat surface has been used for agricultural cultivation of cashew, sesame, yam and construction purposes while the leftover 70% is rocky.
The land in Kogi West is dominated with a mixture of grains farming and tree farming, of which those displaced in Kogi Central due to the unavailability of land sort for their farming abode in Kogi West.
Establishment of cattle colony in Kogi State will cause more hazard than gains to our life and economy considering the loss of agronomic investment in terms of cashew, palm oil, grains and other staple crops in the area allocated.
Security impact
Considering only the economic impact without the threat to lives posed by these potentially criminal group of nomads is a gross delusion, a miscalculation and simply put, outright foolishness.
The menace and atrocities committed by these people in Benue and Taraba states are too glaring for clear minded people to sense impending dangers of accommodating them.
Also note that the danger posed by these migrating marauding herdsmen is beyond what conventional Nigerian security agencies can control, because these people live in the bush and perpetrate their atrocities there in the bush.
The present day government should do more by boosting our own home made agricultural produce by inviting investors to add more value to our own products like cashew, rice, palm nuts etc. rather than welcoming clear danger.
#NoColonyinKogi
– Aribido David Jayeoba
Chairman, Mobilization Against Cattle Colony in Kogi State.
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