Investment in livestock important than oil exploration – Group

From Uche Uche, Damaturu

Kulen Allah Cattle Rearers Association of Nigeria has called on the federal government to investment more in livestock development in northern Nigeria than in the exploration of petroleum resources.
This is contained in a press statement from the president of the association, Hon. Khalil Mohammed Bello, which was made available to Peoples Daily in Damaturu, Yobe state.
According to him, development of livestock and arable framing in northern Nigeria would put the region in a better position of being able to feed itself, the whole country and the entire Africa states than the large sum, in billions, being expended in the process of oil exploration which has not been found in commercial quantity in the field under exploration.
“According to experts in the petroleum exploration, even if the oil is found up to the commercial quantities, it would at least take more than ten years before its transportation to other countries as foreign export can be realized,” he said.
He said if the billions of naira expended for oil exploration in the North is being spent judiciously for the development of agriculture, reclaiming of land encroached by desertification through massive three planting and production of pasture and water points, both livestock and arable framing will develop to the extent that now, northern Nigeria would be in a position of being able to feed the entire Africa states.
He stated that the reason why investment in livestock sector in northern part of Nigeria than in the exploration of petroleum resources is better is that, apart from the nutritional food provided by livestock sector to the people of northern Nigeria and the whole country on daily bases, northerners use some of the animals for draught or plough land during the raining season.
“But at the same time, we strongly believed that northern Nigeria will do better as it did during the colonial era and in the first republic without petroleum but with livestock, and of course, one will not compare renewable resources like livestock with natural deposits such as petroleum resources, which can be replaced with several alternative energy sources such as biofuel, electricity, solar to motorize our engines,” he said.