Fulani leaders ask Tinubu, NASS for 30% of farm budget for livestock ministry

Fulani pastoralist leaders have asked President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly to set aside at least 30 per cent of the agricultural budget for the Ministry of Livestock Development.

They also want the 417 grazing reserves across the country gazetted and protected, and pilot ranches with fodder production started in each of the six geopolitical zones.

The demands were made on Sunday at an international press conference in Abuja by a coalition under the Confederation of Pastoralists. Abdullahi Ardo, General Secretary of the Kautal Pulaku Fulbe Association of Nigeria, spoke for the group.

Tinubu created the livestock ministry in 2024 to tackle farmer-herder conflicts through ranching, pasture development and better infrastructure, and to move livestock farming from subsistence to commercial scale.

Ardo said the ministry was a welcome step but had not been given the money or clear rules to work. "The ministry remains largely unfunded and without a clear operational framework," he said, adding that pastoralists had waited about 60 years for such a ministry.

The leaders described livestock as an economy worth about ₦30tn, arguing it is too large to be handled casually.

Killings and relief

The coalition said hundreds of pastoralists have been killed in recent months in Plateau, Niger, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara and other states. It said women, children and elderly people were among the dead, thousands of cattle were rustled or killed, and settlements were burnt.

It asked the Federal Government to order an independent investigation and to direct NEMA (the National Emergency Management Agency) and NCFRMI (the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons) to give relief to displaced pastoralists, as it does for other communities.

The group also asked security agencies to protect pastoralists, citing Sections 14 and 33 of the 1999 Constitution, and called for an end to ethnic profiling.

The leaders urged Tinubu to convene a national dialogue on farmer-herder conflicts, which they said have claimed more than 20,000 lives in 10 years. They want the talks to include Miyetti Allah groups, religious leaders, traditional rulers, security agencies and state governments, with justice, compensation and peaceful coexistence on the agenda.

They also asked federal and state governments, traditional rulers, farmers' groups and development partners to work together on lasting solutions.

What happens next

The requests now rest with the Presidency and the National Assembly, which approve the federal budget. Any change to the livestock ministry's funding would show up in the next spending plan. The call for a national dialogue has no date yet.