BY DAYO ADESULU
There are many reasons the inhabitants of the southern part of Nigeria believe that the Fulani herdsmen have no justification to operate ranching in their land.
Apart from ethnicity and language issues, the Southerners believe that land surface area KM square had been naturally allocated to each state.
Looking at the statistics, it show that the north has versed land surface area than the south.
Below is the Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory land surface areas KM square ranking.
1. Niger State 76,363KM²
2. Borno State 70,898KM²
3. Taraba State 54,473KM²
4. Kaduna State 46,053KM²
5. Bauchi State 45,837KM²
6. Yobe State 45,502KM²
7. Zamfara State 39,762KM²
8. Adamawa State 36,917KM²
9. Kwara State 36,825KM²
10. Kebbi State 36,800KM²
11. Benue State 34,059KM²
12. Plateau State 30,913KM²
13. Kogi State 29,833KM²
14. Oyo State 28,454KM²
15. Nasarawa State 27,117KM²
16. Sokoto State 25,973KM²
17. Katsina State 24,192KM²
18. Jigawa State 23,154KM²
19. Cross River State 20,156KM²
20. Kano State 20,131KM²
21. Gombe State 18,768KM²
22. Edo State 17,802KM²
23. Delta State 17,698KM²
24. Ogun State 16,762KM²
25. Ondo State 15,500KM²
26. Rivers State 11,077KM²
27. Bayelsa State 10,773KM²
28. Osun State 9,251KM²
29. Federal Capital Territory 7,315KM²
30. Enugu State 7,161KM²
31. Akwa Ibom State 7,081KM²
32. Ekiti State 6,353KM²
33. Abia State 6,320KM²
34. Ebonyi State 5,670KM²
35. Imo State 5,530KM²
36. Anambra State 4,844KM²
37. Lagos State 3,345KM²
A critical and analytical look at the land areas above revealed that the combination of Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Imo, Ebonyi is 29,525KM²
Thus, the five states in the South-East of Nigeria is not up to Kogi state which 29,833KM²
Also, the combination of land surface areas in Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti is just 76,320KM². Incidentally, that is the equivalent land surface areas in Niger state alone which is 76,363KM².
In the statistics, Lagos has the least of land surface area in Nigeria of 3,345KM²
Meaning that Niger State is equal to the entire Southwest States, besides Lagos.
It also depicted that the entire Southeast
is a little less than Kogi State only.
Where then is the justification for North to seek for land for ranching when they have enough land for ranching and cattle colony.
