The Presidency on Friday said dialogue with the leadership of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria was meant to stop cows from roaming the streets of the city centre of the nation’s capital, Abuja.

The dialogue was held at the instance of the Chairman, Board of Trustees of MACBAN, Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III and the Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Maiha.

In his remark, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Livestock Development, Idris Abiola-Ajimobi, reiterated the commitment of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to finding lasting solutions to the challenges confronting pastoralist in the country.

Mr Abiola-Ajimobi said, “We are here for a stakeholders’ engagements meeting. It’s a gathering to dialogue with the livestock stakeholders to let them understand the effort that are being made by the administration of President Tinubu. We are working together with the Ministry of Livestock Development and other relevant agencies to address the root causes of the problems. The issue of livestock moving around the street of Abuja.

“We must first solve the issue of grazing reserves, we are working on ranches, we are working on Special Agro Industrial Processing Zone. We are also working on reviving the grazing reserves, providing feeds and ranches whereby pastoralist can find a safe zone to operate to live and coexist as well as have all the basic social amenities they need. Like feeds, water, healthcare system, veterinary clinics and other essential services.’’

Also, the Special Assistant to the Minister of Education on Almajiri and Out-of-School-Children Education, Dr Balarabe Kakale, said the meeting also looked at the all-inclusive efforts of the Federal Ministry of Education.

The meeting interacted with the stakeholders and leaders mainly of MACBAN in Abuja and surrounding states and unanimously came up with an important resolution.

Mr Kakale stated, “They are ready to partner with the sustainable grazing solutions of the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development which educational is the key component.

And they were ready to move to the grazing reserves of Abuja. So far, the required amenities are all provided there and of course they are about the Nomadic schools, veterinary and medical clinics, electricity, water, mini dams among others. They are all ready to key into the all-inclusive education transformative agenda of this administration to get every child into functional education and learning.’’

On his part, the National President of MACBAN, Baba Othman-Ngelzarma, noted that the meeting was organised to address the concerns of cows roaming the city centre.

He said, “And to also address the issue of education, particularly the issue of out of school children which the pastoralist children are the majority. Out of about 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, we believe 80 per cent of the out of them belong to the pastoralist children. So, the issues of concern were raised and addressed here. You can see the congregation. We want to make Abuja a model; we want to start practising it here and see how it is going to work for us. You can see we have invited the stakeholders, the leadership of MACBAN from the six area councils of the FCT and those families whose cows are roaming the streets of the city centre. We all invited them to hear from them. Let’s know what is the process that is bringing them into the city and how can we stop it.’’

He added that a committee would be set up to find a lasting solution to cows roaming the city centre.

(NAN)