Southern Kaduna’s Anxiety-inducing Pain And The Need For Bold, Brave New Thinking To Address The Cattle Economy
The Oasis Reporters
January 13, 2023
By Greg Abolo
@gregabolo
@Theoasisreport1
Sitting on fault lines that straddles in between the Muslim-Christian never ending strife, inter ethnic rivalries, the endless struggles over resources and the smart utilization of it for the benefit of all, Kaduna State once saw itself as a fear and anxiety inducing enclave that people went to, almost reluctantly.
“All around me I see pain, pain and pain, Pain inflicted on people by people, pain avoidable, pain unnecessary, pain unfruitful, pain that is very painful”, wrote a notable advocate from the southern end of Kaduna which is mostly Christian and animists who remain most often under relentless attacks by Islamist terror groups who aim to dislodge them from their ancestral lands.
“Men in authority rejoicing that they have power and capacity to create pain,excited that they can by mere pronouncement wipe off smiles and replace them with bloodshot red eyes too burdened to even shed tears”, continued the advocate at some point was an attorney general and commissioner for justice.
“This is the burden that prevents me from popping any Champagne on this day……though grateful to God for the gift of a fulfilled life, this pain, this painful pain all around and everywhere is quite painful”.
With such a debilitating legacy of trauma as it bears on this hot-button issue, one can find only negative energy in the gloomy surroundings of Kaduna when a switch from negativity to positivity would have unbundled the growth, unity and cooperation that the whole nation needs.
The Burial Yesterday at Malagum – Kagoro in Southern Kaduna.
— SarkiB (@realYangaB) December 23, 2022
We were able to compile the list of those killed. 40 Obidients killed by Fulani terrorist and their houses burned to the ground with their PVC in it. Till now, no one has describe or designate them terrorist but they pic.twitter.com/i9s2xozNNT
The state, and indeed the entire region certainly has a need for a bold, brave and new thinking to address the cattle economy, the smokescreen that tends to cover the internecine conflicts that underpin the entire region.
When one analyzes the cattle economy of a section of the community in Kaduna state versus the economy of the larger majority who fall on the divide of the crop economy, the struggle for land which has morphed into religious and ethnic conflicts, politics of domination becomes so overarching, making psychologists refer to this phenomenon as “internalized oppression or identification with the oppressor”, as Marva L. Lewis of Tulane University eloquently expressed in an article.
Suddenly when it dawns on the oppressor- class that they are fewer in numbers, democracy becomes a subject to be rejigged in a subtle sense, to keep the oppressed classically conditioned into accepting the status quo.
Without bold and new initiatives that can make the land hopeful and welcoming for all, flipping the negativity into positivity like it happened in South Africa, becomes unreachable. The region continues to move from one disaster into another.
But how is the cattle economy carried out to the extent of yielding billions of dollars monthly to the farmers in the Netherlands, the US, India, UK etc, such that the killings that happen in Kaduna state are never heard of in those climes ?
That’s a topic that deserves further research by scholars in Nigeria.
Since April 2019, the Netherlands is home to 1.58 million dairy cows and calves with a yearly production of 14 billion kg of milk.
On the flip side in Nigeria, the country was home to about 30 million cows in 2019.
Dutch dairy companies processed an estimated 13.85 billion kg of milk in 2019, with cheese production showing a particular increase (more than 1%)
with the country accounting for approximately 4% of global cheese production.
The total value of Dutch dairy exports increased to more than €7.8 billion, mainly attributable to cheese products.
There are no figures on how much the cattle economy yields to the national economy in Nigeria. Although the yield in human killings for the cow to live and the herders to forcibly displace indigenous farmers towards appropriating their land remains enormous.
The Dutch dairy sector accounts for 7% of the national trade surplus, and the Dutch share in the world dairy trade amounted to almost 5% in 2019, earning the Netherlands a spot in the worldwide top-5 largest dairy exporters alongside New-Zealand, the US, Belarus, and Germany.
Almost 75% of all milk processed in the Netherlands remains in Europe, accounting for more than €5.6 billion, with Germany as the most important trading partner. Besides cheese exports to Germany (valued at almost €1.2 billion annually), milk powder and high-quality food ingredients are important export products.
Belgium, Germany, and France are the most important sales markets with a joint share of over 70%.
Outside of the EU, China, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Japan are the most important countries for Dutch dairy exports.
The figures stated show how enormous a well utilized, deepened and harnessed cattle economy can yield to a country in need of investments.
But then, yoghurt or quark on the shelves of supermarkets in Nigeria are imported. Ask what the cattle business provides to the national coffers beyond consumption, which it must be admitted is critical to the protein needs of the people, one would draw a blank stare.
But it can be better than that, without the attendant killings and other forms of brigandage and pains it causes to bear on the people.
You do not hear of farmers/ herders rifle fights in the dark in other climes.
Why must it be so in Nigeria?
Greg Abolo
gregabolo@gmail.com
