Senate Passes Bill To Regulate Cattle Rearing Business In Nigeria

There was a heated debate on the floor of the Nigerian Senate on Wednesday after the lawmakers passed a bill to establish the National Animal Husbandry and Ranches Commission.

The Senator representing Benue North West, Titus Tartenger Zam, had sponsored the bill meant to control and regulate cattle rearing ranching business across the country.

Explaining the bill’s general principles, Zam argued that the proposed Commission should manage, regulate, and preserve ranches across the country.

He said: “The proposed National Animal Husbandry and Ranches Commission is for management, preservation, and control of ranches throughout Nigeria.”

However, the bill met stiff opposition from the Senator from Gombe, Danjuma Goje and his counterpart from Kebbi, Adamu Aliero.

The lawmakers and former governors argued that cattle rearing and ranching activities were more prevalent in the North than other parts of the country, stressing that lawmaking should be for the entire country and not for a section.

Goje specifically maintained that cattle routes begin from the far north and end in Lokoja as “the route does not extend to the South”.

In his contribution, the Senator representing Jigawa North-West, Hussein Babangida Uba, called for extra caution in passing the bill, given its trail of controversies in the past.

Other Senators who supported the bill contended that the proposed Commission would manage the farmers/herders crisis and that the Senate should pass it.

The bill was passed after it was put to voice vote by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

It was referred to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Judiciary, and Legal Matters to be reverted in four weeks.