Rustlers forcing Zamfara women out of animal rearing business
The menace of cattle rustling in Zamfara rural communities is seriously affecting animal rearing activities by rural women thereby scaling up the rate of poverty among them.
In recent times, thousands of cattle and other domestic animals were stolen in the rural communities. The activities of the cattle thieves have impoverished a large section of the rural women.
Most of these women, Daily Trust has learnt, are into cattle and goat rearing to meet family financial needs but this is being hindered by the menace of animal thefts.
When this reporter visited Wanke village, some women, who spoke with him narrated how they lost their animals to thieves overnight.
“I had four cows - I bought two and inherited the other two after my father’s death. I lost all the cows including 16 goats and 13 sheep to thieves. I have no single animal now,” Halima, a middle-aged housewife recalled.
Speaking on how this affected her financial wellbeing, she said; “As I told you earlier, I have no single animal now. Before the thieves raided our community, after every one year I used to sell goats worth N100,000 to N150,000. In fact from the money I used to make, I helped my husband buy roofing sheets for two rooms he built in the house,” she said.
Another housewife simply identified as Hajara, said she was about selling her two bulls to marry out her daughter when rustlers stole the animals and she had to run to her brother for help.
Though most of the women rearing animals who spoke with Daily Trust recounted nasty experiences about how the success of their businesses was being hindered by animal thieves in their localities, some of them expressed satisfaction with the successes they have recorded.
“I was having 233 goats and 40 sheep. Last month, I sold 11 of them and made about N130,000 and I bought a motorbike for my son who was jobless and he is now doing commercial riding,” another rearer, Ramatu Inusa, said.
Malam Aliyu, a resident of Mashema village, had no option other than to give the suspected armed bandits a hot chase not minding the risk involved in that decision. It was an attempt to reclaim his stolen cows from the armed rustlers. His herd of over 200 cows was seized by the armed rustlers in one fell swoop.
“I was inside my hut that night when suddenly I started to hear gunshots some yards away from our settlement. I woke up my wife and she advised that we should hide but I told her that we could not run and leave behind our cattle at the mercy of the rustlers,’’ he said.
Another resident, Yusuf Hali, said in the last two years, more than 2,000 cows had been stolen in Maji, Fanda Haki, Matankari, Yar Katsina and Bingi communities most of them in Maru Local Government Area of the state.
Daily Trust observed that rural women, despite numerous challenges facing them, are still carrying out their animal rearing business with passion.
Malam Rilwanu Musa Zurmi, the State Focal Person in Millennium Development Goals office in Zamfara State, said his office disbursed funds to women cooperative societies under a scheme called Financial Grants to Cooperative Societies.
He said the scheme was aimed at empowering women, adding that animal rearing groups of women such as the Women Livestock Producers Association and Mallamawa Young Red Goats Rearers Cooperative in Maradun LGA benefited from the grant.
Malam Musa Zurmi acknowledged the challenges rural women are facing in raising their animals. He said the menace had really affected the economy of the rural women.
“In some communities, there is a system the rural dwellers adopt to shield their animals from theft called ‘A sako.’ The system involves employing one or two rearers who would herd all the animals in the community for grazing.
“What they normally do is that the women and any other person having cows or goats in a village will bring them in the morning. The ‘a sako’ man would blow a whistle to signal his arrival at the village and the women would untie their animals and bring them to a meeting point. After the animals in the community are gathered, the man would then herd them away for grazing and would not return in the evening.”
“The ‘a sako’ is paid a fixed amount per animal - be it a cow or goat - every day, week or month, depending on the agreement reached. This is done to ensure the protection of the animals because it is easier to raid and seize such animals at the individual residences,” Malam Musa Zurmi said.
However, cases of animal thefts have drastically reduced after the state government engaged the rustlers into dialogue with a view to ending the menace plaguing the rural communities.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Security Matters, Alhaji Sani Gwamna Mayanchi, said animal rearers have no cause to worry as peace is gradually returning to the rural communities including markets.