The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), has admitted that it is embarrassing to see cattle roam the streets in cities across the country.
MACBAN President, Baba Othman, said this on Wednesday, during an interview on Arise Television’s Morning Show.
He disclosed that the association convened a meeting at the instance of its Board of Trustees chairman, the Sultan of Sokoto, to deliberate on the matter.
Othman explained that MACBAN is working with the Ministry of Livestock and the Ministry of Education to seek solutions, noting that about 80 percent of out-of-school children are from pastoralist families.
“We were the ones that organized that meeting at the instance of our chairman board of trustees, who is His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto,” he said.
“It’s very embarrassing to see cattles moving everywhere in the city. That is why we called for that meeting last Friday, so that let’s hear from the Abuja headers. Let know what is pushing them into the city, and let’s see how we can work with the with the Minister of livestock. And not only the Minister of livestock, even the substantive Minister of Education is also into it, realizing that about 80% of the out of school children belongs to the pastoralist children.
“So we all collaborating with the Ministry of Education, the Minister of livestock with Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association to fashion out ways on how we can stop this embarrassing movement of cattle within the city.
“We sat with them. We heard from them. The minister has now directed that a committee be established to come out with the blueprint on how this thing is going to be addressed urgently. So we are now working on it. And we are part of everything that is livestock, even the livestock transformation committee under Jega. I was a member of that committee. So we are deeply involved in whatever the ministry is doing in terms of transforming the livestock sector, in terms of addressing the livestock production system in the country for good.”
