The National President of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Baba Ngelzarma, has called on President Bola Tinubu to retain the National Commission for Nomadic Education as an agency under the Ministry of Education.
According to him, the commission has a special mandate of providing basic education to nomadic communities in the country.
The federal government on February 28, 2024, stated that parts of the recommendations in the 12-year-old Oronsaye report would be implemented.
The 800-page report recommended that 263 of the statutory agencies be slashed to 161; 38 agencies be scrapped; 52 be merged and 14 be reverted to departments in various ministries, among others.
Speaking while reading a communique issued after a security summit on Saturday, Ngelzarma stated that not retaining the commission with adequate funding to educate the children is an imminent danger to the country.
He said, “The committee constituted to implement the recommendations of the Orasanya Report, to consider as a necessity the retention of the National Commission for Nomadic Education as an Agency of the Federal Ministry of Education with the specialised mandate of ensuring the delivery of functional basic education to nomadic communities.
“This is in consideration of a research report on out-of-school children in Nigeria, that 8 million out of over 10 million out-of-school children in the country are pastoralist children. Therefore, not retaining the commission with sufficient funding to educate the children is an imminent danger to our dear nation. ”
He also urged the federal government to adopt a non-kinetic approach to ending banditry, kidnapping, and cattle rustling, adding that the kinetic tactics used have achieved little results.
“That the government has not made much inroads towards addressing the genesis of the current conflict, challenges of the Fulbe.
“The federal government should revise and adopt a non-kinetic approach to ending banditry, kidnapping, and cattle rustling, as the kinetic ways used over the years have only achieved very little result”, the communique stated.
