Moses Uwagbale
The Senate has sought the establishment of a National Livestock and Management Bureau for the purpose of livestock identification in the country.
This followed the presentation of the lead debate on the general principles of a Bill for an Act to Establish National Livestock and Management (Protection Control and Management).
The sponsor of the Bill, Sen. Bima Enagi (APC-Niger), led the debate at plenary.
According to Enagi, the all-important bill seeks to solve the age long challenge of animal identification and management by establishing the National Livestock Bureau for the purpose of livestock identification, and cattle rustling control.
He explained that the essence was to safeguard the nation’s livestock and sanitise the livestock industry.
“The livestock sub-sector is an integral part of agriculture and vital to the socio-economic development of the country, though its productivity currently is very low.
“It accounts for one-third of Nigeria’s agricultural GDP, providing income, employment, meat, milk, leather, farm energy, manure, fuel, and transport.
“Recent estimates indicate that Nigeria’s national livestock comprises 18.4 million cattle, 43.4 million sheep, 76 million goats and 7.5 million pigs (FMARD, 2017),” he said.
Enagi, who is the Vice-Chairman Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, said the Bill when passed into law, would create a National Livestock Identification Database
“It will ensure management, traceability, and control of movement of livestock,” Enagi said.
Contributing, Sen. Sabi Abdullahi (APC-Niger) recalled that the Bill was brought before the 8th Senate but “unfortunately it never went through.
“This Bill is timely and should be supported. We are talking about diversifying the economy the livestock sector is key to this effort.”
Sen. Bala Na’Allah (APC-Kebbi) said the Bill would help in monitoring the movement of cattle.
“It will make it almost impossible for anybody to have access to illegal livestock and sell them elsewhere,” he said
In his remarks, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said the livestock sector generated between N5 to N10 trillion annually for the country.
“Any government or any parliament will try to do anything possible to ensure that such an industry is protected, promoted to ensure that people earn their livelihood and people have food reserve in the country.” Lawan added.
