Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom has called on the federal government to outrightly cancel the planned construction of the controversial Ruga settlements for herdsmen across the country and seek solutions to the causes of their violence-ridden seasonal migration from the North to the South and back.
He cautioned that the idea of establishing ruga settlements for herdsmen from the North and their brothers from Mali, Senegal, Niger, and Libya was not a solution to the farmers/herdsmen conflict but rather a great danger that could threaten the existence of the country.
The Governor spoke yesterday while declaring open the 43rd annual conference of the Soil Science Society of Nigeria at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi.
Ortom observed that desert encroachment and lack of sufficient vegetation, which were responsible for these movements, could be remedied as was done in Israel, where a complete desert was transformed into a rich agricultural hub.
He stated that if the sandy Negev desert, which had no water or vegetation could be so transformed, there was no reason the same could not be done in the north of Nigeria that had water and vegetation but faced the challenge of desert encroachment.