NIGERIA seems to be cursed with a curse of misplaced priorities. The country, even in such perilous times, does not want to make serious conversations about what ought to be seriously debated. Some Nigerian leaders will become so agitated whenever our beloved cattle —pride of our nation— are up for discussion in the towering halls of the National Assembly. What happened over the last couple of days gives one the impression that cows and goats are competing for the same space of attention and empathy in the mind of our legislature as the plight of the average citizen.
The Senate has moved a motion to create a database for cows, goats, pigs, and poultry, and it is aimed at solving the challenges encountered in animal identification and livestock management through the establishment of a National Livestock Bureau. This bill for an Act to ‘establish national livestock and management (protection, control and management etc) bureau’, sponsored by Senator Muhammed Bima Enagi of Niger South, is not so bizarre if not for the timing. Yet, his fellow Niger senator, Sabi Abdullahi, described the bill as “timely” when he seconded. If only the clownery of the National Assembly’s plenary sessions can be revealed to every Nigerian!
That the National Assembly has enough time to accommodate readings of this bill concerned with cattle rustling, animal genealogy, and genetics but has little time to indict Dr Isa Pantami for all the controversial issues that sprang up throughout the same week is baffling.
In the midst of our insecurity crisis, a hard drug epidemic, and educational meltdown, the house is busy with petty and less urgent legislation over the average Nigerian cow, goat, sheep, or pig. The country has a record of over 10 million out-of-school children roaming the streets and a few hundreds sleeping in the den of kidnappers, yet they do not seem to be such a priority for the senate.
At a time when we should focus most of our energies on security, health, and education, we still get to debate whether cows get their own NINs or not. It is no surprise that some critics of the Nigerian government have insisted that the federal government values livestock than it does children. Imagine the rush towards creating a bureau and database for cattle when we cannot claim any form of responsibility for children out on the streets. Nigeria, a sovereign nation, is still shamelessly looking at the reports from other countries to get data on its own out-of-school children but it wants to get the statistics right on livestock. A country that currently has no idea of its exact population is more concerned with the idea of conducting a national census for its herds of cows and sheep. I do not know how Senator Enagi Bima fails to see the absurdity in the timing of this bill but I am sure that his inability to understand prioritization of national issues is in equal proportion to his incompetence as a representative of his constituency in Niger state and the Nigerian people at large.
A member of the Senate echoed the same questions I had about the immediate need for the National Assembly’s intervention in the livestock industry and how urgent the matter really is. Senate President Ahmed Lawan’s response is that the parliament’s intervention is based on the Doctrine of Necessity and a need to protect the livestock industry. He said: “Sitting here, I believe that we will be doing this country good; we will be doing justice and a great deal of service to our people that we legislate on this.” The words ‘justice’ and ‘service’ strike me as important words. These two words remind me of the herdsman crisis and the demands of some herders who have complained about lack of support from the government.
If it is the case that the National Assembly is doing this to give more support to the livestock industry and be just to them, why did it take so long? And why is it that educational deficiencies and security lacunae are not handled with such seriousness at a time like this? This bill is not timely, it is insensitive and embarrassing. We should be more vocal against the insecurity plaguing the country and dedicated to eradicating such festering sores scaring foreign investors like Amazon and Twitter away.
.png;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
