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The federal government has finally drawn the hardest of lines in Nigeria’s longest-running internal conflict: open grazing is now officially banned nationwide and anyone caught moving cattle on foot across the country risks being charged with a capital offense.
The hammer dropped on Tuesday in Yola during the inauguration of the maiden National Council on Livestock Development, where Minister of Livestock Development, Alhaji Mukhtar Maiha, announced that the era of herders trekking hundreds of kilometres with cattle, destroying farms and triggering bloodshed, is over for good.
“Open grazing has now been classified as a capital offense,” Maiha declared, adding that ranching is no longer an option but the only legal way forward. He argued that modern ranching will not only end the deadly clashes that have claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions, but will also fatten cattle faster, improve meat and dairy quality, and turn livestock into Nigeria’s second-largest revenue earner after oil.
The numbers he reeled out were staggering: the ministry projects $74 billion in revenue within five years from a properly structured livestock sector, with over $14 billion already in the pipeline from ongoing programmes. That’s money the country desperately needs as oil revenues dwindle.
The new National Council on Livestock Development, comprising directors from all 36 states and the FCT, has been handed the mandate to enforce the ban, design ranching models, and drag Africa’s largest nomadic herd into the 21st century. Adamawa State, one of the biggest livestock hubs, was deliberately chosen as the launch venue, with Deputy Governor Professor Kaletapwa Farauta proudly declaring the state ready to lead the ranching revolution.
For farmers across the Middle Belt (Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Taraba) who have borne the brunt of open grazing violence for two decades, the announcement has been met with cautious jubilation. Many are waiting to see actual enforcement, especially in remote villages where herders have operated with impunity.
But the tone from Abuja is unmistakable: the days of cattle roaming highways, eating crops, and triggering massacres are numbered. The federal government has not just made a policy statement; it has criminalised an entire way of life and promised to back the ban with the full weight of the law.
The ball is now in the states’ courts to establish ranches fast, or risk watching their farmers and herders slide back into the cycle of killings everyone claims to want ended. This time, the message is clear: modernise or face prosecution. No more open grazing. Period.
