IF you have not seen the recent trending video on social media showing the badly disfigured face of an Amotekun operative trying to prevent a Fulani herder from violating Oyo State’s grazing laws, maybe you should look it up. According to multiple reports, the incident occurred after the operative instructed the herder not to stray into unauthorised territory. Some reports claimed that the herder had earlier been reported to Amotekun operatives for harassing local women. In another incident, the Lagos State Butchers Association recently decried the persistent rise in the price of cows in the state, saying that they had become costlier than some second-hand cars. The association’s patron, Alhaji Bamidele Kazeem, lamented during an interview with NAN in Lagos that the price had moved to as high as N2.5 million from about N1.7 million in 2025, a development he attributed to insecurity, rising transportation costs, and delayed local ranching initiatives. This last point is crucial.

And in yet another sad development, at least 28 Yoruba communities have been deserted in Ifelodun, Kwara State, following relentless onslaughts by nomadic terrorists. The harvest of death and destruction is huge, but the misgoverned governor of the state who recently battered ethnic sensibilities by renaming the Kwara Government House as Ahmadu Bello House is busy doing exactly nothing. As I show below, a single thread connects these seemingly disparate stories.

Many have argued that there’s nothing wrong with Yorubaland or indeed, any other part of Nigeria relying on another part for its cattle needs. Citing the law of comparative advantage, they argue that it makes sense for Nigeria’s South-West to focus on its areas of agricultural strength while sourcing cattle from the North. That idea is attractive, but for the purpose of this piece, it is subversive and useless. There would be no problem if all that Yorubaland did was buy cattle from others. But the cattle business has opened up ethnic cleansing concerns, and the earlier Yorubaland exploited other alternatives, the better for its future. The cattle business enables expansionist, genocidal raids in Yoruba territory, and this atrocity must be confronted. Estimates of Yoruba people killed in terrorist onslaughts by nomadic herders vary, but a September 2024 submission by Professor Banji Akintoye, a Yoruba historian and leader, puts the figure at over 29,000. Relying on foes for food is courting danger.

The Yoruba say, “We cannot, out of a desire to eat meat, call a cow (elder) brother.” But the potency of such a proverb has been neutralised by the trail of bloodshed in the land as nomadic herders try their best to turn it into a human abattoir. The Yoruba, like most other ethnic groups, are being decimated by terrorist herders, dying because of beef. The owners feed their cows on Yoruba farms, yet sell the same cows to them for money. Until the link between cattle supply and terrorism is broken, it makes sense for the Yoruba to nurture and feed on their own cattle. In 2022, the then Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, while addressing some stakeholders in the education sector in Akure, the state capital, advised residents of the South-West states to consider killing chickens for ceremonies instead of cows in order to prevent capital flight. His grouse was that the region was losing nothing less than N2.5 billion daily to the consumption of cows. The proposal is fraught with difficulties, but it raises a concern that no perceptive observer can possibly dismiss.

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Yorubaland can raise its own cattle, abandoning the northern grazing model. It can achieve a lot through ranching. It is a no-brainer that controlled, fenced systems with planted pasture use land more efficiently. The South-West would be saving its future by investing in cattle feed (e.g., cassava peels), improving cattle breeds and productivity, and investing more purposefully in slaughterhouses, refrigeration and transport. Evidently, public-private partnerships, private investments and cooperatives can go a long way in this regard, as can well-thought-out land policies for ranching.

What if the South-West states set a target to produce at least 40 percent of the region’s cattle needs, establishing multiple functional ranches in each state? Nothing stops them from setting aside an adequate number of hectares, undertaking breeding upgrades through imports or partnerships, creating state-of-the-art abattoirs, and upgrading dairy collection systems. Suppose organs like Afenifere launch a Cattle Breeding Initiative with significant support from Yoruba people in Euro-America and other climes? And suppose that this scheme is backed up by security arrangements using seasoned hunters with complementary support from Amotekun? There will always be problems, but it is better to fight off danger than to sit idly and do nothing. The reason the enemies of the Yoruba are so bold and so disdainful towards them is that the Yoruba have been feeding and sustaining them for ages.

I hear of moves in this regard by some state governments. For instance, Oyo State is said to be transforming its cattle production sector into a structured agribusiness through the $500 million World Bank-assisted Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES). According to reports, the state focuses on enhancing productivity, commercialisation, and modernisation of cattle farming. The government is said to be pushing for artificial insemination to improve milk yield, which is currently low (3–4 liters per day) compared to international standards. A shift towards sedentary, settled, and intensive systems is reportedly occurring, reducing traditional migration.

Ogun State, on its part, is said to be undertaking a significant expansion of its livestock sector, establishing modern, large-scale cattle ranches and dairy production facilities to enhance food security and industrial growth. Plans are in fact underway to establish Nigeria’s largest dairy and cattle ranches in Ipokia and Yewa South LGs, with an initial capacity of 5,000 head of cattle. The government is said to be establishing modern ranching facilities to replace unregulated slaughtering at locations like Kara Market with hygienic, centralised slaughtering and processing. Last year, I saw a video showing the state receiving a consignment of 50 in-calf Ayrshire heifers via air from Uasin Gishu County, Kenya, to enhance dairy and beef cattle populations.

Great as these efforts are, they are not enough. I suggest that the governors of the South-West mandate varsities and research institutions to produce a certain quota of cattle by specific dates. I suggest that they provide land and security to would-be investors, and ensure that before the end of their tenure, only beef produced in the South-West is consumed in Government House. I suggest that the South-West set specific targets to produce cattle, and organise a cattle carnival where both public and private initiatives will showcase cattle breeds and cattle products actualised in each state. The governors should set up cattle ranches in each local government, with adequate security in place. Let them seek the inputs of researchers and agriculturists, home and abroad.

Yorubaland and Nigeria as a whole must dispense with the fulanisation of cattle rearing. Cows have no ethnic group. Along with the warning today, please read “Rescuing Yorubaland” (November 12, 2022). Ire o.