BEVERLY HILLS, September 16, (THEWILL) – The Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, has said that Fulani herdsmen from Chad, Niger and other neighbouring countries will benefit from the National Livestock Transformation Plan.
Mohammed, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, said since Fulani herdsmen are nomadic, it would be inappropriate to deprive them from benefitting from the livestock plan just because they are not from Nigeria.
The governor, whose state is among those that will be part of the initiative, said Fulani exist in many countries across Africa and share a brotherhood which transcends boundaries.
The initiative will be 80 per cent funded by the Federal Government while the states would provide 20 per cent counterpart funding and the grazing land.
When asked how the government would ensure that only Nigerians benefit from the livestock plan, Mohammed said, “I think there is a lot of mistrust and misconception as regards the Fulani man. The Fulani man is a global or African person. He moves from The Gambia to Senegal and his nationality is Fulani.
“As a person I may have my relations in Cameroon but they are also Fulani. I am a Fulani man from my maternal side, we will just have to take this as our own heritage, something that is African. So we cannot just close our borders and say the Fulani man is just a Nigerian.
“In most cases, the crisis is precipitated by those outside Nigeria. When there is a reprisal, it is not the Fulani man within Nigeria that causes it. It is that culture of getting revenge which is embedded in the traditional Fulani man that attracts reprisal.”
When asked if it was right to allow foreigners to benefit from Nigerian taxpayers’ money, the governor said it was proper saying Fulani don’t actually have one single nationality since they are nomadic in nature.
“We are already accommodating them. Do you delineate and really know who is not a Nigerian Fulani man?
“They are all Nigerians because their identity, their citizenship is Nigerian even though they have relatives from all over the world. So, presumably they are Nigerians because they move all over and have relations all over. That is why our population in Nigeria is fluid.”
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