A Government announcement that it plans to resettle nomadic Fulani herdsmen has raised anger in several parts of the country. Critics allege that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari plans to use the Ruga settlement plan as a cover to acquire land across the country and alter the population demography of Nigeria. The government however, states that its Ruga settlement plan seeks to create a home for herdsmen in identified areas of the country that would end the destructive activities of herdsmen whose cows feed on farmlands that they traverse across the country. According to the Government, the scheme would also end widespread incidence of herdsmen attacks on communities. Under the Ruga settlement plan, hundreds of hectares of lands would be acquired in identified States, new communities built, supplied with water, schools, roads, hospitals and complete social infrastructure. Roaming herdsmen would then be brought into these settlements together with their cows to live and develop as new communities.
Critics however accuse the Government of extreme insensitivity, alleging that herdsmen have ravaged communities, killed men, women and children, seized their lands without government acting to stop it. They accuse the government of seeking to legitimise this blatant seizure of their lands in the guise of resettlement of nomadic Fulanis. By culture, Fulani nomads are not known to settle for a long time at any one place. It is therefore puzzling to understand how this policy would address this concern. Following from the outcry over the policy, the Government has announced a suspension on it, stating the scheme’s inconsistency with the National Livestock Transformation Plan as reason for the suspension. Most critics have called for an outright cancellation.