Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), has canvassed the adoption of ranching, as one of the best solutions to the protracted herders-farmers crisis across the country.
The governor, who spoke during activities marking the first anniversary of his administration in Akure, said, it would be difficult to find a lasting solution to the crisis unless grazing areas or ranches were established in all states of the federation.
“My own position is that except that we don’t want to say the truth, there is no way we won’t have grazing areas or ranches in all the states of the federation if we want genuine peace,” he declared.
While expressing his displeasure with nomadism, Akeredolu decried the present situation in the country where cattle are being moved from one location to another in search of what to eat.
According to him, “my own idea is that if we have ranches in all the states, even the herdsmen by the time you enlighten them and interact with them properly, they will like the idea, everybody don’t want to be permanently nomadic, they also want a settled life too. We must discourage nomadism’’.
Appealing to Nigerians not to allow the herders-farmers crisis to cause division in the country, the governor insisted that ranching still remains the best option.
Speaking on the state of roads across the state, Akerdolu said his administration had intervened in many villages and communities by rehabilitating bad roads, while construction of new ones are also going on.
“There are roads that we met that are bad and we intervened immediately; we don’t need any flag-off ceremony for such intervention. When people are suffering because their roads are bad, we move in immediately, it is not a flag-off ceremony that is needed. I ordered our people in the Ministry of Works to get the contractors to move in to do the work.
He further revealed that the state government had earmarked for execution some projects tagged legacy projects and these include the overhead bridge at Benin-Ore road and the road from Araromi in Ondo State to Lekki in Lagos State.
|Sun