CDHR urges Cattle owners to bear cost of ranching

The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has urged Cattle owners to bear the cost of ranching since cattle rearing is a profitable private business.

This was stated by The CDHR during it’s national council meeting held over the weekend.

“If cow owners want ranches, they should acquire the land through purchase,” the communique reads.

“The CDHR appreciates that conflict of interest prevents President Buhari and his rich Fulani and other cow owing friends of his, from championing the human rights of the herdsmen; that it suits their pockets to put forward arguments that it is a cultural way of life that no outsider should interfere in.

The CDHR is committed to this and calls on all Nigerians and men and women of goodwill to make this matter top priority.

“With proper orientation, the herdsman who is a worker, should come to understand that for the cow owners, cattle rearing is profitable private business.

Consequently, feeding the cows is a business expense which the owners of the cows must bear, just like other business persons who own poultry farms and fish ponds.

“CDHR is resolved that cow owners must not be allowed to set Nigeria ablaze, utilising deceit and deliberate confusion of issues, by attributing their private business of cattle rearing to ‘Northerners’ and that the clash and conflict of interest between the herdsman and farmers is one between the ‘North’ and the ‘South’.

“Nigerian people from all parts of the country also need to see these issues through this prism. Given that the average Fulani herdsman cannot afford an AK47 rifle, it should be clear that it is this cow owing clique that is arming the herdsmen as part of their strategy to enforce their will, to get other Nigerians to be responsible for their business expenses.”

The CDHR also condemned the “exploitation” of herders by cattle owners, stating that it takes the country back to the slavery era.

MTO/Today