The Federal Government at the weekend urged states to make land available for the controversial RUGA settlement, even as it said N2.258 billion was allocated for the initiative in the 2019 budget.
Disclosing the position of the government when he hosted Akwa Ibom State indigenes from the Law School, Abuja, Ita Enang, Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters to the President, insisted that the word ‘RUGA’ does not derive from Hausa or Fulani but is an acronym for Rural Grazing Area (RUGA), and is not intended to foist any religion or ethnic group on other sections of the country.
Critics of the scheme had accused the Federal Government of covertly trying to Islamise or Fulanise parts of the country.He cited item ERGP 5208 of the 2019 federal budget (for the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development) as containing the fiscal provision, saying allocations were equally made of N300 million for water sanitation, N400 million for the development for sweet potatoes, and N350 million for ginger production.
Read Also: Wole Soyinka: Ruga can set Nigeria on fire
He expressed surprise over the inability of some states governors to comprehend the policy. According to him, one of the first RUGA programmes is the Obudu Cattle Ranch (now Obudu Mountain Resort) in Cross River State and the Yankari Games Reserve in Bauchi State.
According to Enang, the Federal Government has always made yearly allocations for the funding of grazing areas. He further noted that the National Executive Council (NEC) approved another sum for an emergency RUGA implementation. This, he said, did not involve any state in the south-east, south-west and south-south, but only 10 states mainly in the north-central, and a few others in the north-west and north-east.
National Assembly members are not against the scheme because they are already aware of its modus operandi and have been approving funds for its implementation, the presidential aide said, appealing to Nigerians to stop politicising the matter.Responding, the leader of the students’ delegation, Ndifrake Inyang, said he was now in a better position to enlighten people about RUGA “having known the facts.”