Tinubu woos herders with livestock ministry, increases fiscal strain  

* Our hope has been renewed via new ministry, says Miyetti Allah
* Tinubu: Why I created livestock development ministry
* Orosanye Report: Senate tells FG to halt NFVCB wind down 

 
President Bola Tinubu has heeded the call for a special institution that would oversee and manage challenges facing herders, in the light of the perennial farmer-herder crisis with the creation of the Ministry of Livestock Development.
 
The President announced this yesterday during the inauguration of ‘the Renewed Hope’ Livestock Reform Implementation Committee set up to address the issue of the farmers-herders crisis.
 
The announcement set the ball rolling for the establishment of a work environment, purchase of work tools and engagement of personnel to oversee the workings of the new ministry.
 
But this decision would come at a cost and extra financial burden on the government and more strain on scanty and slow-growing public revenue, especially at a time the administration was considering a piecemeal implementation of the Oronsaye Report, seeking to merge and downgrade some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).  
 
The extra burden comes at the toughest time in the country’s history. Nominal revenues, for instance, are growing at a sluggish rate. In the real term, the growth is almost stagnant. For instance, in the first nine months of last year, retained revenue grew by 36 per cent – from N5.5 trillion in the corresponding period in 2022 to N7.56 trillion in the first three quarters of last year.
   
Sadly, about 77 per cent of the retained revenue went into debt servicing in the period, leaving a paltry sum for other spending needs. The recurrent expenditure, which the new ministry will increase, was equivalent to 132 per cent of the revenue earned in the period, with the shortfall coming from debt.
   
That unmatched revenue and expenditure equation means critical infrastructure, which should reduce economic insecurity that fuels the farmers-herders crisis, is left unattended to or poorly funded.
 
From January to September, infrastructure and other capital projects only received a total N1.28 trillion in allocation even as the utilisation was estimated at 78 per cent. The government spent far less, even at face value, on infrastructure last year than in 2022. When the figure is deflated for inflation and naira depreciation, the previous year’s capital project spending may be less than 30 per cent of what was spent in the same period in 2022 (N1.92 trillion).
   
The fiscal crisis is worsened by unavailable or unaffordable debt. The external debt market was not available for last year’s budget funding as of September ending as both project-tied multilateral and bilateral as well as conventional external loans were blank.
   
In a desperate attempt to source funding for the 2024 budget, the Debt Management Office (DMO) offered the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) bond at near 20 per cent, implying the government will be paying a fifth of the proceeds as yearly interest.  
 
 As government wallows in a fiscal wreck, the meagre revenue is now outstretched with enlarged bureaucracy, which will strain its ability to fund basic needs, service its over-mounting debt, fulfill its obligation to civil servants and sustain the bloated cost of political appointees.     
 
Already, both the 2023 and 2024 budgets, which are being implemented (albeit strangely) concurrently are almost marred by poor funding, with earned revenue now growing and the debt market drying up. For one, the 2023 budget suffered a N1 trillion unfunded deficit – the first such a fate would befall the government.
 
Of late as well, bond offers are beginning to suffer under-subscription, putting a question on the perception that the domestic market is big enough for the government to play in. Sources familiar with the challenge currently faced by the government said the unfunded component of this year’s budget could run into trillions.
   
If that happens, the government could be forced to begin to ration recurrent expenditure, part of which will go into the funding of the Ministry of Livestock Development.
   
Tinubu will go into history as Nigeria’s president with the biggest cabinet. He took the reins at the most difficult time in the history of the country with the previous administration living on debt. But so far, he continues to play the Ostrich at the cost of running an efficient government. He is reputed to have assembled the largest cabinet ever, comprising 45 Ministers.

WHILE some stakeholders see the President’s move as a bold step in solving the perennial farmers’ and herders’ clashes following the creation of the Ministry of Livestock Development, others allude it is part of an unfolding 2027 game of curry the North that may be feeling ostracised by the ‘skewed’ appointments in this administration.
   
Constant clashes between farmers and cattle herders have lingered for too long with many Nigerians demanding solutions from the government. While some Nigerians welcome the development, others insist that the president has finally succumbed to pressure from mostly Fulani herdsmen for a ministry to be created for them to take care of their business.
   
President Tinubu had in September 2023, approved the establishment of the Presidential Committee dedicated to the reform of the livestock industry and the provision of long-term solutions to recurring clashes between herders and farmers in the country. This followed the submission of a report from the National Conference on Livestock Reforms and Mitigation of Associated Conflicts in Nigeria.
   
Also, the president of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Baba Othman-Ngelzarma, had last month appealed to Tinubu to create the livestock ministry.
   
In his reaction yesterday, Othman-Ngelzarma said it was a promise kept, expressing profound appreciation to President Tinubu for the creation of the Ministry. In a statement released in Abuja, the MACBAN leader enthused that the establishment of the ministry is poised to unlock the potential of Nigeria’s trillion-dollar livestock industry.
   
“With this development, MACBAN believes, the hope of the Nigerian pastoralists is now achieved under the Renew Hope Agenda,” Othman-Ngelzarma stated. “The promise made by President Tinubu, to raise the productive capacity of Nigerian agriculture to ensure food security is being fulfilled,” he added.
   
Also, the Vice President, Institute of Animal Science, Prof Akinyele Adesehinwa, described it as a welcome development, saying the ministry was created so that all the areas of agriculture in the country could grow.
   
“That was the concept of the creation, so that all the areas of agriculture can grow. There are two professions at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security – the Veterinary Council of Nigeria and the Nigeria Institute of Animal Science, the move is to carve out the Ministry of Agriculture.
 
“Under the ministry, we have fisheries, livestock crops and when you look at the ministry today, not until President Tinubu got there and made it the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, it was the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources. So many things were lumped up there. Now, the ministry is further divided because there is crop agriculture and there is animal agriculture.
 
“In the concept of agriculture in Nigeria, the agriculture of crops has subdued livestock development. If you look at all the research institutes that are based in Nigeria, how many do you have for livestock, from livestock to husbandry, it is only the National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI), compared to crops, where you have Institute of Agricultural Research & Training, Institute of Agricultural Research, National Horticulture Research Institute (NIHORT) for crops, Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Forestry Research Institute, but everything about cattle – large ruminants for beef and dairy. So, this is a welcome development, as it will assist all areas of agriculture to grow.”
   
Announcing the creation of the new ministry, President Tinubu said the move is expected to exploit all the value chains associated with livestock and its byproducts.
   
“This presents a unique opportunity also to delineate and establish a separate ministry called the Ministry of Livestock Development. We will develop the economy, give people the opportunity to excel. Our vet doctors can give us the necessary opportunity to rear, crossbreed and stop the wanton killings, even animal feed is a huge economy.”
 
The President equally took steps to review the membership of the existing Livestock Reforms Implementation Committee, announcing himself as Chair of the Committee and appointing former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega as Co-chair.
   
Although he did not announce a substantive Minister for the new ministry, it will exist side by side with the Ministry of Agriculture. Speaking at the inauguration ceremony which took place at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa Abuja, Tinubu expressed optimism that the crisis associated with herders and farmers will come to an end considering the array of personalities constituting the committee.  
   
Tinubu also said he was not averse to the ranching system as recommended by the Committee. According to him, the traditional livestock system must be reformed to add significant and sustainable value to Nigeria’s socio-economic growth and development, imbibing all measures that are available to us.

MEANWHILE, the Senate has asked the Federal Government to halt the scrapping of the National Film and Video Census Board (NFVCB), as part of efforts to implement the scale-down of government personnel as advised contained in the Oronsaye Report, insisting that the process is a violation of the rule of law.
   
The resolution came following a debate on the motion “Urgent Need to halt violation of the NFVCB, sponsored by  Ogoshi Mohammed, the Senator representing Nasarawa South on Tuesday.
   
Lawmakers had expressed concern over the directive from Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, instructing Hannatu Musawa, Minister of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy, to commence on the immediate dissolution of the NFVCB. The directive aimed to integrate the NFVCB as a department within the ministry, bypassing the legal process required to repeal the law establishing the agency.
   
President Bola Tinubu, in February, had directed the implementation of the Oronsaye report which revealed that there were 541- statutory and non-statutory – Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies. 
The 800-page report recommended that 263 of the statutory agencies be slashed to 161; 38 agencies be scrapped; 52 be merged and 14 be reverted to departments in various ministries.
   
The sponsor of the motion, Mohammed in his lead debate, expressed concern that the SGF directive violated the National Film and Video Censors Board Act Cap No.40 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 (as amended.
  
He expressed disapproval of the instruction for the ministry to complete the administrative and financial process to wind down the NFVCB within three weeks with effect from 21st June 2024 and report back to the SGFs office within the first month after it becomes a department of the ministry.
 
 According to him, the process of winding down an Agency of government which came into force through an Act of Parliament should first commence with the repeal of the Act establishing the said Agency.
   
“The Oronsaye report is a committee report that should not override an Act of Parliament”, he said.
   
“This issue of abuse of the law, if goes unchecked would become a bad precedence going forward, there is a need to check this illegality by insisting that the right procedure for winding down a statutory agency be followed”, he stressed.
   
Contributing to the debate, Solomon Olamilakan, supported the motion, insisting that the rule of law must be strictly adhered to, and the President must formally notify lawmakers to repeal relevant laws, “so that so that on our part we can repeal all those laws. The law cannot be in existence if the agencies are scrapped.  The needful must be done in repealing those laws.”
   
In his submission, Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President, said the winding down of the NFVCB would have been an infringement on the act of Parliament, but also said the National Assembly is not even aware of the implementation of the report
   
He stated “If the president wishes to implement Orange, due process must be followed. This means all the acts of Parliament in existence must be brought before the parliament for further consideration.”
 
Akpabio emphasised that the President can only proceed with implementation when the parliament agrees. “You can only begin to implement when the parliament is in agreement with you”, he said.
   
“If you bring for instance the NFVCB and the parliament says no, the agency stays alive. The agency will only cease to be in existence when there is a bill before us for a repeal,” Akpabio stressed.

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