Fulani leaders have asked President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly to give the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development at least 30% of the national agriculture budget and to set up pilot ranches in all six geopolitical zones.
The Kautal Pulaaku Fulbe Association of Nigeria, which operates under the Confederation of Pastoralist NGOs, made the demands Sunday at a press conference in Abuja. General Secretary Abdullahi Ardo read the statement on behalf of the association’s president, Huseini Buzaye, and said the group speaks for more than 30 pastoralist associations across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The group praised Tinubu for creating the livestock ministry but said it remains largely underfunded and without a clear operational framework at the community level. It described livestock as a 30 trillion naira economy and also asked the government to gazette and protect all 417 designated grazing reserves and to begin fodder production alongside the pilot ranches. The association called the creation of the ministry a historic decision after 60 years of agitation.
Ardo said Fulani pastoralists have been profiled as bandits, kidnappers and terrorists, and urged security agencies and the media to stop ethnic profiling. “Criminals are criminals and have no tribe,” he said. He asked that suspects be arrested and prosecuted as individuals, not as an ethnic group.
The coalition said hundreds of pastoralists, including women, children and the elderly, have been killed in recent attacks in Plateau, Niger, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara and other states, with thousands of cattle rustled and entire settlements burned. The figures could not be independently verified.
It asked for an independent investigation of the attacks, protection under Sections 14 and 33 of the 1999 Constitution, and relief materials from the National Emergency Management Agency and the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons.
Saying military operations alone cannot end the farmer-herder conflict, which the group said has claimed more than 20,000 lives in 10 years, it urged Tinubu to declare a national dialogue and reconciliation process involving Miyetti Allah groups, traditional rulers, religious leaders, security agencies and state governments.
The leaders also called on pastoralist communities to respect farmers’ property, keep cattle off farmland, expose criminals and informants in their ranks and prioritize education for their children. The coalition said it will launch a nationwide sensitization campaign in all six geopolitical zones.
Ranching and grazing-reserve policies have been contested before. In 2019, a forum of Southern and Middle Belt leaders rejected the Buhari administration’s National Livestock Transformation Plan, arguing it would escalate clashes and describing it as divisive.
The federal government had not responded publicly to the demands by Monday morning.
