Between the Cow and Burutai

Now, cows are not Shiites. Do not get me wrong. I just want to caution the General.

The cattle ranches in my state were devoured by a military governor. He stole equipment, cattle, many things.

A recent civilian governor, Fulani for that matter, employed his relative as a staff of the biggest ranch - the Galambi Cattle Ranch - on Grade Level 02 and made him the GM of the ranch two years later. The chap sold the few miserable cows he met there.

It seems cows and officials - military or civilians - do not make a good company. A visit to NAPRI will convince you further.

The effort of the military is a good one. It may succeed under the present dispensation. But I have a number of prayers:

1) To succeed, Burutai needs to import new tropical breeds of cows, not our local breeds or Frisians. I pray that officials of Fed Min of Agric and NAPRI will this time allow the importation of the new breeds into the country, unlike in instances before when they blocked it.

2) I pray that the cows will not be fed through TSA; otherwise, they will die of hunger, like many Nigerian individuals and agencies.

3) I also pray that Brutai's effort will not go in vain or his attention divided between two fronts: fighting insurgency and in-house rustlers.

Amma kamar za a ba gwauro ajiyar mata.

Finally, I wonder where Audu Ogbe's ranches program is right now. Ten months ago he promised Nigerians that in 18 months no cow will roam in this country. Eight months to go. We are counting.

God save the cow.

Aliyu
21/12/16