The Federal Government’s proposed pilot scheme under the New National Livestock Policy has sparked major regional backlash, with socio-cultural groups across the Middle Belt and Southern regions uniting to oppose the initiative, which they label a “disguised land-grabbing scheme”.
​The controversy erupted during a high-level briefing held on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, at the Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja, where the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) officially declared its total rejection of the project. This followed an earlier emergency press conference convened at 2:00 PM on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, at the Middle Belt Secretariat in Jos, Plateau State, where regional delegates first raised alarms.
​Speaking on behalf of the coalition in Abuja, the President of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr. Bitrus Pogu, alongside the MBF National Publicity Secretary, Luka Binniyat, warned that regional communities would deploy every constitutional and legal measure available to block the acquisition of ancestral lands.
​”What we are witnessing is an opaque, coercive, and discriminatory policy pursued to the exclusive advantage of nomadic pastoralists,” Dr. Pogu declared during the joint statement. “Ranching is a private economic enterprise. The Federal Government cannot disguise compulsory land acquisition for private actors as ‘public interest’ while ignoring millions of displaced indigenous farmers who cannot even safely return to their ancestral homes.”
​The coalition highlighted several core grievances regarding the Federal Government’s implementation plan; Leaders questioned why the pilot ranching projects were concentrated primarily across Middle Belt states, such as Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue, and Kaduna, while replacing far northern states like Kano, which possess large expanses of sparsely populated land.
The forum emphasized that the Land Use Act of 1978 vests rural land in local councils and customary landholders, asserting it does not grant the Federal Government blanket authority for arbitrary land revocation.
Opponents cited previous failed and heavily opposed initiatives, such as the Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) and Cattle Colony concepts, warning that the current proposal threatens to permanently alter regional demographics.
​The opposition front features key leaders representing major socio-cultural bodies, including Oba Oladipo Olaitan (Chairman of the SMBLF and leader of Afenifere), Senator John Azuta-Mbata (President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide), and Ambassador Godknows Igali (National Chairman of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF).
​The SMBLF has demanded an immediate suspension of the policy until the Federal Government publishes full disclosures on exact ranching coordinates, ownership models, land sizes, security frameworks, and funding sources.
Legal teams across the Middle Belt states have already been instructed to prepare lawsuits challenging any compulsory land acquisition orders tied to the policy.
