He said: “First of all I will have to make a clarification because there are two groups of Miyetti Allah. We have Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore and Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), which is what I represent as national president.
“As for my association, the Nigerian Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, we have not endorsed any presidential candidate.
”We are still waiting for all the presidential candidates to answer our questions about the seven-point demands we put forward and we present them with copies of a letter containing our demands.
”So far, we have not received any consent from any of the presidential candidates. So even when we get one before we start looking and considering in the shortest amount of time we have and deciding whether or not we can support it.”
Usman Ngelzarma He said that all the major political parties have not included the challenges faced by Nigerian pastoralists in their manifestos.
”I personally presented our demands to the presidential candidates of the three main political parties, it is only the Labor Party that I did not present personally, but I met with some representatives of the party and gave them the letter.
”So, before deciding which presidential candidate to support, we have to sit down together, analyze and discuss with the congress because that is our difference with the other pastors’ associations.
”We are going to demonstrate our numerical strength in this year’s elections. Anyone we agree to vote for will get a block vote.
“And whichever candidate we support will win the election, because we have about 16 million registered voters from the pastoralist community in Nigeria,Usman Ngelzarma
He said he reviewed the manifests and plans and didn’t see anything to do with livestock.
Usman-Ngelzarma said: ”And every time you talk about cattle in Nigeria, you talk directly or indirectly about Nigerian herders or the Fulani because they own 98% of the country’s cows, goats and sheep.
“So they are the only protein providers in the county, and in fact, I think the Fulani are the largest single tribe that has the most recent population in this country.
“So, we are definitely a force to be reckoned with and we are also controlling a multi-billion dollar investment in naira because the South West of Nigeria alone consumes 6,000 cows daily, let alone the South East and the remaining part of the country. .
“Unless we see how each of the political parties includes our demands in their manifestos, we cannot make any move for now because at MACBAN we have different political interests..”
The national president of MACBAN said that some of its members were registered members of APC and added: “some are in PDP, Labor Party, NNPP, PRP and other political parties. In fact, there is no interest group in Nigeria where you will not find our members.
“MACBAN is not a political group, but since we are in a political era and in order for us to advance our course under the current democratic system of government, we definitely have to participate.”
