Ex-Imo State Governo Rochas Okorocha,says Nigeria is losing billions of dollars in the cattle farming dairy chain.
The federal lawmaker notes that cattle farming in Nigeria is largely done through grazing, addiing that not through a chain that values export of beef, milk and leather.
He made this remark in an interview with Channels TV on Sunday evening.
“Herding is a human rights and labour law issue,” Senator Okorocha said, citing the use of kids to walk cattle from the North to the South.
“It’s my concern because they are not going to schools… If you agree with me, these children don’t own the cattle; they are owned by Nigerians, some of them even Southerners… We are subjecting these kids to travel 1000km.
“Coming to the point made by the Southern Governors, they are saying, the reason to ban open cattle grazing, is because of the Ak-47 (arms) involved within the herders. The herders we know carry sticks, but the armed ones destroy people’s crops.
“Nobody is saying they don’t like beef, but it’s the effect… the armed herders and the destruction of crops. These are the two issues, but then we jump over it and politicize it,” he said.