Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed has said Fulani herdsmen from Chad, Niger and other neighbouring countries will benefit from the National Livestock Transformation Plan.
He stated this on Monday as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily saying since Fulani herdsmen are nomadic, it would be inappropriate to deprive those outside Nigeria from benefitting from the livestock plan just because they are not from Nigeria.
According to him, “They are all Nigerians because their identity, their citizenship is Nigerian even though they have relatives from all over the world. So, presumably they are Nigerians because they move all over and have relations all over. That is why our population in Nigeria is fluid.”
He stressed that “As a person I may have my relations in Cameroon but they are also Fulani. I am a Fulani man from my maternal side, we will just have to take this as our own heritage, something that is African. So we cannot just close our borders and say the Fulani man is just a Nigerian.
The National Livestock Transformation Plan will be 80 per cent funded by the Federal Government while the states would provide 20 per cent counterpart funding and the grazing land.
The governor, whose state is among those that will be part of the initiative, said Fulani exist in many countries across Africa and share a brotherhood which transcends boundaries.