Fulani socio-cultural group, the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, has boasted that herders would survive if Nigeria eventually broke up.
Spokesman for the group, Saleh Alhassan, while reaction to various calls for secession by some in the country, said herders have enough resources to survive if the country is divided.
According to him, northern governors will develop the livestock value chain if they stop getting “oil money” from the Federal Government.
He added that the division will enhance the north to grow and harness its resources.
“If we want to restructure the country or divide this country, we should sit down on a round table and say this is how we want to share this country, or this how we want to exist. It is as simple as that.
“Do you think if they divide Nigeria today, the herders will be at the disadvantage? No. If there is no oil at the centre, won’t the northern governors develop livestock? Who are the custodians of livestock, is it not the Fulani herders?
“So, what we are facing is what is called ‘resource curse’ –the oil we have has become a curse on us. If our governors were not collecting oil money, we would have flourishing ranches, flourishing grazing reserves, a lot of companies would be producing animal feeds and all the value chains would have been harnessed.
“But when governors wake up every morning to collect oil money at the centre and then they begin to negotiate for power-sharing here and there, this is what we have.”