Following public outcry over the RUGA Settlements being created across Nigeria by President Muhammadu Buhari, the president has reportedly suspended the project, ThisDay reports.
“The president, after consultations with stakeholders, has resolved to put away the idea for a thorough review and well acceptable approach to the menace constituted to national security by the constant clashes between herdsmen and farmers,” the newspaper reported on Wednesday, July 3, 2019.
What Is RUGA?
Reserved Urban Grazing Area, RUGA Initiative by the federal government is aimed at settling herders in parts of the country.
The initiative has been rejected by some governors, and many Nigerians, mostly in the south, have kicked against the plan, which the government insists is aimed at reducing clashes between herders and farmers, which have intensified in recent months.
The Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who recently came under fire, said the initiative is different from the National Livestock Transformation Plan approved by state governors under the auspices of the National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by him.
About 12 states have reportedly bought into the controversial initiative.
On May 21, 2019, the immediate past Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, announced that Buhari approved the Ruga settlement initiative earlier in the same month.
“Just ten days ago President Muhammadu Buhari approved a programme called the Ruga settlement. We are going to build settlements where herders will live, grow their cattle and produce milk,” he said.
“The milk will be bought by a milking parlour thus preventing their wives from moving around with milk. This is especially to avert any conflict between the herders and the farmers.”
Dave Umahi, the governor of Ebonyi State, the leader of the South East Governors Forum, has said there are no plans of establishing any RUGA settlement in any part of the South South or South East regions
Governor Umahi made this statement following insinuations that the federal government is planning to forcefully take over lands in the states for the scheme.
CAN Threatens To Drag Buhari To The United Nations
The Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, has threatened to drag President Muhammadu Buhari to the United Nations over the Ruga policy of the Federal Government for herdsmen in the country.
The Imo State chapter of CAN made the position known on Sunday, June 30, 2019, via its State Secretary, Rev. Eches Divine Eches, in Owerri.
Eches said RUGA was a strategy to freely create settlements for the Fulanis in the 36 states of the federation.
He called on the five governors of the South East states to quickly convene an emergency meeting to jointly and publicly reject the move to establish Ruga settlements for herders.
He added that the life of Nigerians would be under threat with such a policy, expressing fears that it could lead to further killings in the country.
Eches said: “We, the Christian Association of Nigeria, Imo State chapter, are saying no to the Ruga policy of President Muhammadu Buhari.”
