Rugaism: A Challenge to National Sustainability or a Solution?

Abstract

Rural Grazing Areas (RUGA) are places set aside for the use of pastoralists and are intended to be the foci of livestock development. However, the RUGA scheme introduced by the Nigerian federal government was out rightly rejected by most state governments particularly in the southern region of the country. The study therefore examined the historical development of grazing reserves in Nigeria as well as the ideas behind the proposed federal government rural grazing areas. The study adopted the analytic cum historical research design. Data were collected through secondary sources. Finding revealed that RUGA was introduced in the past as development of communal villages in grazing reserves and as a means of bringing livestock into peasant agriculture. But this is not the case with the present proposed programme of the Nigeria federal government. Indigenous Nigerians are compelled by Federal Presidential power to have the Fulanis who are aliens to inherit and permanently retain part of their indigenous land as Fulani homeland. The paper thus concluded that the proposed rural grazing area is a challenge to national sustainability and not a solution.