Despite the public outcry which greeted Rural Grazing Area (RUGA), leading to it being suspended by President Mohammadu Buhari, the federal government has allocated N2.258bn in the 2019 appropriation for its implementation.
Senior Special Adviser to the president on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Mr. Ita Enang disclosed this when he hosted Akwa Ibom State indigenes from the Law School, Abuja, at the weekend.
Enang also said N300 million was allocated for water sanitation, N400 million for the production of sweet potatoes, N350 million for ginger development among several other funds
The presidential aide expressed surprise that some state governors had not come to terms with the policy.
He said one of the first RUGA programmes is the Obudu Cattle Ranch (now Obudu Mountain Resort) in Cross River State and the Yankari Games Reserve in Bauchi State.
The presidential aide said the federal government was always making yearly allocations for the funding of grazing areas.
He further said the national executive council approved another sum for an emergency RUGA implementation.
That, he said, did not involve any state in the south-east, south-west and south-south, but only 10 states mainly in the north-central, and a few others in the north-west and north-east.
Furthermore, he said the national assembly members “are not against the scheme because they are already aware of its modus operandi and have been approving funds for its implementation.”
Enang appealed to Nigerians to stop politicising the matter.
Meanwhile, the Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Okogie asked the federal government to immediately withdraw the N2.2 billion RUGA implementation amount captured in the 2019 budget.
He said since RUGA had been suspended, there was no way the amount should appear in the budget in the first place.
Also Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the spokesman for Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Mr. Uche Achi-Okpaga, said no part of the southeast would be ceded for the grazing project.
“It is shocking that the Federal Government could budget such fund for a private Fulani business enterprise. It is not only unfortunate but also terrible that government is funding a business that will benefit only a segment of Nigerians,” he said.
Former minister of housing and urban development, Mr. Nduese Essien, and leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State, said the already budgeted money should be re-channeled into another programme of the federal government.
He wondered why the federal government will opt for RUGA settlements and abandon exploration of oil in the Niger Delta which he said is the mainstay of the economy.
For its part, the International Society for Civil Rule and Rule of Law (Intersociety) accused the government of insincerity in handling the issue of the RUGA programme.
Its executive director, Mr. Emeka Umeagbalasi said the government was bent on foisting the programme on even the southern states at all cost as part of the alleged Fulanisation and Islamisation of the whole country.
Former spokesman for the Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Godwin Erhahon, expressed surprise that the budget went through the National Assembly without any lawmaker challenging the proposal.
“I am surprised that such proposal passed through the National Assembly without anybody challenging it, it’s a pity.
Similarly, spokesman for the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Chris Nehikhare, expressed surprise that a programme that was suspended by the federal government was budgeted for.
But Mr. Tanko Yakasai argued that there was never a time the federal government declared that it was abandoning the controversial RUGA project.
Tanko, who was not surprised at the retention of the fund in the budget, held that the word “suspended” has no semantic relationship with “discontinuing” the RUGA project.
He further stated that appropriating an amount is different from the actual spending the fund while noting that the disbursement of the fund on RUGA might accommodate whatever changes that have affected the policy.
“If they (government) should do away with the RUGA project, what would they do with the Fulani and their cattle? Send them away?
“The Fulani are Nigerians like the rest of us and deserve the support of the government like all of us. You cannot discriminate against the Fulani simply because they are Fulani” he added.
