“Months After Wike’s Warning, FCT Roads Flooded with Cows”
It has been exactly a year since the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, made the promise to curb open grazing within Abuja on 23rd August 2024.
“We shall consult with the herders to see how we can stop [open grazing] because we cannot allow the cows inside the city,” said Mr. Wike in August 2023.
In March of 2024, during a meeting with the Belgian Ambassador to Nigeria, Daniel Bertrand, former Rivers State Governor Mr. Wike reaffirmed this position.
Naijaeyes monitored around the major spots in the city and satellite towns for the last 16 months to see how well the policy is faring. The findings show that cows are still grazing within the city.
A very large herd of cattle was seen around the Defence Headquarters one day in August 2024, marching majestically down the middle of the road during working hours.
August 23, 2024. It has been exactly one year since the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, promised to end open grazing in Abuja.
“We will consult with the herdsmen to see how we will stop [open grazing] because we cannot allow cows inside the city,” Mr Wike had said in August 2023.
In March 2024, during a meeting with the Belgian Ambassador to Nigeria, Daniel Bertrand, Mr Wike, a former governor of Rivers State, reiterated this stance.
In August 2024, a very big herd of cattle was seen roaming about during office hours around the Defence Headquarters, majestically moving down the middle of the road.
Similarly, in September 2024, another herd was spotted very close to the newly constructed residence of the Vice President, opposite the gate of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation:
Aside from threats and promises of ministerial attention, there are still the same accounts of daily sightings of cows roaming the city.
Shefiu Adio, a stakeholder in the city and a taxi driver, told Naijaeyes as cows jammed traffic near the traffic light close to the Defence Headquarters; “the minister is now slowly learning how to play the ‘politics of cattle’ within the Nigerian context”.
Now cow diplomacy and politics have occupied the national political space. The order from the minister is seen by many people as an order that is targeting northern Muslims, who account for most of the cattle-rearing in Nigeria.
Wike has to learn about the very delicate water in which these cows have to swim in Nigeria THIS POST has reported open grazing in 16 identified locations within the city, including Asokoro Extension, Guzape. Along the Airport Road, herders graze their cows on grasses growing on the highway.
Such depth dictates that the cows be called “children of the government,” in many languages of residents.
Some of the residents are now hoping that the establishment of the Ministry of Livestock would provide more contact solutions.
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