By Emeka Nwokocha
Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria (GCSDN), has called on the governors of the 17 southern states of Nigeria to quickly take further steps to embarking on huge investment in cattle rearing and breeding, after they had laudably banned open grazing, saying that cattle breeding is a sustainable and profitable business across the world.
GCSDN, gave the advice recently while proffering measures to stave off killer herdsmen in southern states of Nigeria and make the region safe for its citizens and residents.
Speaking at a regular enlightenment session of GCSDN, the global coordinator of the group, Mr. Frederick Odorige, outlined the economic gains in cattle breading. He said that cattle breeding is a sustainable business, noting that the lifespan of a cow is 18-22 years, equivalent to a 4 year tenure of 5 state governors in Nigeria.
He urged the governors to establish dairies and abattoirs in established cattle farms and exhaustively optimize the gains in cattle breeding value chain, even as he tasked them to demystify beef production and drastically crash the prices of beef, cheese and milk in the country, and enjoy the employment and revenue the business would generate, so that their citizens would live in peace and enjoy life “yanfuyanfu.”
Continuing, Odorige said, “government is not a mystery, just as wisdom is profitable to direct.” He queried, “must we eat beef bred with the blood of our people? “It is time to turn our present pain to huge gain,” he stated.
Lamenting the ease with which herdsmen “invade” the forests, Odorige said, “we are suffering because we abandon our forests and give the invaders an opportunity to occupy them.”
Odorige brought to fore the theory of ungoverned spaces, propounded by Rabasa, which says, “the prevalence of ungoverned spaces in contemporary states provide safe heaven for treasonable and subversive activities often orchestrated by organised criminal and extremist groups.”
He said, “why do we leave our forest uncultivated while our people are hungry? Odorige urged the southern governors to go ahead and rear pigs, saying, “the invaders forbid pork meat.”
He continued, “clear vast areas of your forests and turn them into modern piggeries and the invaders will run when they hear the sounds of pigs as they oink and squeal.” He continued, “the pregnancy of a sow (adult female pig) last 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days. A sow could give birth to at least 10 piglets from each pregnancy and may have two births in a year. It means a piggery with an initial 10,000 sows will multiply to 10,000 x 10 piglets x 2 times a year, which equals to 2,000,000 pigs in just one year.”
“What have we been waiting for,” Odorige asked, even as he charged the governors of the 17 southern states not to give one inch of their land to private business persons who provocatively and erroneously believe they have a right to their territory. He said, “never negotiate with your land, no region is a monopolist of cattle rearing. There is nothing like Fulani cattle or Calabar dog.”
