Niger Govt Mandates ID Cards For Herders

• Yusuf Oketola

The Niger State government has said herders in the state will soon be mandated to carry Identity Cards. This, it said, was part of measures to stop the movement of cattle in Minna, the state capital.

The Commissioner for Nomadic and Pastoral Affairs, Alhaji Umar Sanda, said Governor Mohammed Bago was determined to integrate the Fulani, whose main vocation is cattle herding, into the society.

He stated, “We must register the whole cattle in Niger State, they must carry ID cards. In a few months, before you rear cattle in Niger State, you must have a licence. The way you register your company, you register your house and cars, you must register your ranch also so that the Niger State Government will know the number of cattle you have in Niger State.

“If you are still moving here and there, you are not commercialising, you are still operating the archaic way but if you want to make it the modern way of rearing cattle and make more profit, you must settle them in one place.

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“His Excellency, Mohammed Umaru Bago, promised the Niger people that he would run a government of the people, a government where all Niger people would be carried along. He does not want to run a factional government. That was why he created the ministry so that the Fulani rearing cattle among us can feel the impact of the government and have a sense of belonging. They are part of this country.”