Politics

Why FG is Wrong to Establish Livestock Development Ministry — Adamolekun

Published by Tope Fakinlede on July 20th, 2024.

Why FG is Wrong to Establish Livestock Development Ministry — Adamolekun

By Muyiwa Adeyemi

Foremost public administration scholar, Prof. Ladipo Adamolekun, has criticized President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s decision to create the Ministry of Livestock Development. According to Adamolekun, this move contradicts the June 2018 consensus within the National Economic Council (NEC) on ranching through the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP), which echoed earlier ranching initiatives by regional governments in the 1950s and 1960s.

Adamolekun emphasized that the Federal Government should not be involved in the livestock business. “The FG cannot and should not be expected to fund ranches across the states in the federation. This will be antithetical to the devolved federation that many of the same governors are clamouring for. FG owns no lands on which to establish ranches; its role in livestock farming can only be supportive of states’ initiatives,” he stated.

He recalled that during the 1950s and 1960s, the Western Nigeria Livestock Company operated about 11 ranches, and the Northern Nigeria Rural Grazing Area Law of 1965 had no Federal Government involvement. “Against this backdrop, states that continue to evoke the NLTP ought to know that the primary responsibility for its implementation is theirs,” Adamolekun added.

He concluded that, regardless of the ambitious programs and projects within the NLTP, the initiative for implementing ranching should lie with individual state governments. “That’s how it should be,” he said.