By Daouda Ngom

Across Africa, pastoralists and livestock keepers sustain herding systems which are closely bound up with our landscapes and crucial to nationwide food security, economic growth, and ecological balance. In my country, Senegal, almost 70 percent of our land is used to graze livestock.

And yet, I hear it often argued that – if we want a sustainable future – we must choose between hooves and habitats because livestock is an “environmental liability”.

But this point of view is misunderstood. Across Africa, innovative approaches and technologies are being piloted to allow livestock and a healthy environment to coexist. What we need now is more investment and collaboration to scale these breakthroughs.

Despite being home to more than 85 per cent of the world’s pastoralists and livestock keepers, sub-Saharan Africa produces just 2.8 percent of global meat and milk. As a result, one in five Africans do not have adequate access to nutritious foods, including animal source foods. Fixing this can be simple: a single egg, a cup of milk, or a small piece of meat can make all the difference to combatting malnutrition.

Meanwhile, populations are growing and urbanising faster here than anywhere else in the world. Demand for meat and dairy products is forecast to rise 300 per cent by 2050.

Thankfully, evidence is already out there which proves that we don’t need to sacrifice a healthy environment to meet this rising demand.

Pastoralists in Senegal, for example, move their animals strategically to mimic natural grazing patterns, considering rainfall to prevent overgrazing. This not only improves biodiversity and soil quality, but also reduces dry vegetation and the growing threat of wildfires. To support, the Senegalese government has been providing our pastoralists with detailed weather data and forecasts to help them optimise grazing and manage their livestock more efficiently.

Working with communities in this way has been shown to reduce conflicts for land and water resources and restore landscapes.

Elsewhere in Africa, animal health interventions are demonstrating how better, not necessarily fewer, livestock is the answer to sustainability in the sector. East Coast fever vaccination programmes have reduced calf mortality up to 95 per cent in some countries. More than 400,000 cattle have been saved in the past 25 years, reducing emissions up to 40 per cent.

Moreover, new thermotolerant vaccines for the highly contagious viral disease peste des petits ruminants (PPR) – as demonstrated already in Mali – offer a promising way to curb the $147 million in annual losses of sheep and goat keepers across Africa. Boosting productivity among these climate-resilient animals will be essential for nourishing Africa’s rapidly growing population as climate change intensifies.

However, despite these successes, an important challenge remains. I have seen firsthand that many pastoralists, smallholders and subsistence farmers lack the knowledge and resources needed to access and implement these innovations. These groups account for the majority of Africa’s livestock keepers and must be reached for these innovations to realise their benefits at scale.

Two things are needed to bridge this gap. First, greater collaboration between policymakers, researchers, farmers and businesses can help us to better understand the challenges that livestock farmers face and help them to produce more, without compromising our environment.

For example, collaborative initiatives like the Livestock and Climate Solutions Hub launched by the International Livestock Research Institute are a way of showcasing practical ways for farmers to reduce their herds’ impact on the environment.

The second element is investment. For decades, despite the clear potential of high returns on investment, the livestock sector has suffered from a vast investment gap, receiving as little as 0.25 per cent of overall overseas development assistance as of 2017. It must be made financially viable for livestock keepers to invest in technologies and approaches that raise productivity sustainably, or else this mission will not even get off the ground.

The upcoming World Bank Spring Meetings – where funding for development initiatives will be determined – presents a timely opportunity to kickstart this paradigm shift so that livestock is recognised within green financing frameworks.

African countries, in turn, must do their part by incorporating livestock into their national economic development plans and their climate action plans. This will help encourage funding streams from global investors and climate financing mechanisms, ultimately catalysing a multiplier effect of billions in livestock sustainability investment.

The solutions are within reach. What is needed now is the will to act decisively and unlock the continent’s unparalleled natural resource potential to build a future where prosperity and sustainability go hand in hand.

Daouda Ngom is the Minister of Environment and Ecological Transition for Senegal

By Tony Ogunlowo

All the talk in the political arena, right now, is about the elections in 2027, two years away: how Tinubu is going to win a second term in office or how a coalition fronting Peter Obi or Atiku is going to unseat him.

The year 2027 is still a good two years away and what the President was [supposedly] elected to do in his first term he hasn’t even scratched the surface of it apart from indulging in the usual blame-game on his predecessor, complaining about lack of funds and presiding over party-in fighting. Just like Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned he still manages to go on long foreign holidays oblivious to what is going on in the country.

Politicians in Nigeria seem to forget, very quickly, why they were voted into office in the first place: they are there to serve the needs of the people, not to enrich themselves, legally or illegally, not to make a name for themselves and certainly not to ignore the needs – and security – of the people who voted them into power.

The average politician is of “…anywhere belle face…”, which is to say for me, me and myself: no morals, no principles and no integrity. They jump ship quite often and ‘if ‘lagbaja’ is paying then I’m joining his party’ which will explain the mass exodus of governors, senators and other politicians decamping to the ruling APC party, risking the nation fast becoming a one-party state.

As we’ve seen from history one-party states don’t work: it only promotes corruption, inefficiency and cronyism. The old USSR collapsed for the simple reason the party fat cats were more concerned about maintaining their bourgeoisie lifestyles than looking after their people: they forgot what they were there for. The same is happening in Nigeria now.

How much does a ‘congo’ of rice or garri cost? Or a tray of eggs? How much does it cost to fill up your car tank, if you can? Or how much is your electricity bill, even though you didn’t get any power? And what about security? What’s to say you won’t be robbed, kidnapped or killed tomorrow when you are out and about? This and a multitude of other problems is what is happening on the streets of Nigeria on a daily basis. Of course, the high and mighty and politicians live in their high walled private estates with fresh food flown in from abroad weekly, armed guards to watch over them and totally oblivious to what’s going on around them.

There has been no improvement on the situation and things are only getting worse. Sadly, the only thing on your average politician’s mind is how he/she is going to get re/elected in 2027 by crook or by hook and they got a slew of PR experts and marketing gurus to come up with new campaign slogans and a basket-full of promises they’ll never fulfil. In a sane climate if a politician is doing the job he was elected to do to the people’s satisfaction, in the first place, he wouldn’t have to worry about re-election: the people would vote him in willingly.

When you’re employed by a company, for instance, you’ll be subject to weekly, monthly or quarterly assessments by your immediate superior. You are expected to hit certain targets and if your performance falls below what is expected of you you’ll be fired! Why can’t the same rule apply to our politicians? If you don’t do what we expect from you, you are out at the next election. Performance is the key word here and this is how it should be. But come the next election and the starving, belittled, abused, unemployed, sick and endangered people will still vote for the incumbent President despite the fact he’s done nothing proactively to turn things around in his first term, as his predecessor did nothing and as his predecessor did nothing…should I continue to go backwards in time? People seem to have a very short memory until the hardship kicks in.

The Chinese say “..a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step..”, Nigeria’s problems, as gargantuan as they are, can only end when politicians put their selfish interests aside and make a conscious effort to start changing things, a step at a time. Start with tackling the high cost of living. Remember a hungry man is an angry man. Try by making the basic things in life such as food, fuel and electricity affordable: empty promises don’t fill a hungry man’s stomach it only fuels dissent.

And the people have themselves to blame too, why vote in a person who’s going to do nothing for four years and vote him in again?

Itsbeggar’s belief.

So why all the politicians are fretting about themselves, stabbing each other in the back in an attempt to get re-elected, I simply ask ‘na 2027 we go chop?’(-if only it were possible!). Very soon the slogan ‘ebi pa wa o’(we are hungry) will become the new national anthem hopefully forcing politicians to forget their obsession with the 2027 elections and do something….perhaps!

You can follow Tony Ogunlowo on Twitter: @Archangel641 or visit http://www.archangel641.blogspot.co.uk

By Jerome-Mario Utomi

The April 12, 2025, defection of members of the Delta Unity Group (DUG) to the All Progressive Congress (APC) signposts a major political shift in Delta’s politics.

Pundits believe that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which presently controls the state needs a miracle to win Delta’s 2027 governorship election given the massive haemorrhage that has hit it. Essentially, the over 10,000 members of the DUG and their supporters who defected to the APC were made up of seasoned grassroots PDP chieftains.

The defectors were received by the National Chairman of the All-Progressive Congress (APC), Mr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State, and the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr Chiedu Ebie, alongside other notable political figures in Delta State.

So far, Deltans are enamoured by the significant political shift with many describing the development as a political earthquake which was long overdue. Because of its grassroots orientation, political analysts have likened the DUG to the Mandate Group, an independent political pressure group that midwifed the election of Mr Bola Tinubu, now President, as Lagos State Governor in the late 1990s.

In the run up to the 2023 presidential election, among so many objectives, the group was primed and positioned to defend President Tinubu’s mandate and promote democracy, unity, justice, and liberty in Nigeria, mobilize support for him and Vice President Kashim Shettima’s administration, Promote Unity and Justice: Foster national unity, justice, and liberty for all Nigerians among others.

The Mandate Group which has established structures in all 36 states, with plans to launch state chapters and  currently have 580,000 members in Lagos and aim to reach 40 million members nationwide within the next 12 months, targets  various segments of society, including: Students, Workers, Artisans, Teachers, Fishermen, Farmers and Women.

In like manner, the DUG has emerged as a third force in Delta State politics. Although it is not a new body, it has, over the years, been quietly bestriding Delta’s political landscape for the good of the state. Call it a third force in the politics of Delta State, and you won’t be wrong because, from all ramifications, that is what DUG represents.

DUG is by no means a political party, but, as the name implies, it is a Delta State based political pressure group convened a few years ago by the selfless, foresighted and influential trio of  Mr Olu-Tokunbo (Lulu) Enaboifo, Mr Chiedu Ebie and Sir Itiako (Malik) Ikpokpo.

Their aim and dream were to establish a political pressure group with an agenda to modernize Delta State and also serve as the brain box of the campaign platform of Olorogun David Edevbie, who was vying for the governorship candidate of PDP towards the 2023 gubernatorial election.

Even though the aspiration ended with the Supreme Court ruling in favour of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State, the DUG remained a strong force that started building gradually on the dream of a modernized Delta State. DUG has an organizational structure of 17 National Executive Council members, a Board of Trustees, and Local Government Executives in all the 25 local governments in Delta State, with Ward Executives in all the wards across Delta State, DUG is deeply rooted in the grassroots of Delta State with its cell-like structures.

Prior to the 2023 election, a wing of DUG, at the Obinoba Declaration, crossed over to APC, where the APC governorship candidate, Mr Ovie Omo-Agege, described them as the intelligent wing of PDP.

The group significantly made a huge difference in the 2023 general elections in Delta State. The DUG members in the Delta North Senatorial District, at that point in time, remained with PDP and after full deliberation and strategizing, opted to support the candidature of the APC governorship candidate and all other candidates of APC, even though they had not formally left the PDP. Consequently, most of them were either suspended or cast away by PDP after the elections.

It was easy to blend and work harmoniously with the progressives due to the progressive mindset of DUG members. After the 2023 general elections in Delta State, DUG members of Ika Federal Constituency continued to align and work closely with the APC to strengthen the party and ensure that it is properly positioned to convert the Ika Federal Constituency to an APC constituency come 2027.

To the glory of God, President Tinubu found DUG’s co-founder/convener, Mr Ebie, fit to chair the Governing Board of the NDDC in 2023. This further gave the DUG more vigor to project the Renewed Hope Agenda of the progressive governance of Mr President. Following this appointment, Ika Federal Constituency became the heartbeat of DUG in Delta State, which has now radiated positively to Ndokwa/Ukwuani and Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituencies in Delta North.

This wave, which has led to the massive decamping of members of PDP and the Labour Party into DUG in preparation for absorption into the APC, has also witnessed the reactivation of some dormant APC ambers and the massive welcoming of previously non-partisan and newly retired civil servants into the APC, having witnessed the positive impact of the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr. President.

Because the group was fully poised for the reconfiguration of Delta State in the progressive fold of the APC, it is therefore, not surprising to witness the humongous crowd that emptied into APC on 12th day of April, 2025 in Agbor, Ika Federal Constituency, Delta State.

Going by the above development, it is obvious that come 2027, Ika nation in particular and Deltans in general shall witness the dethronement of People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in the state and enthronement of a people focused leadership to be formed by the All Progressive Congress, APC, in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

Utomi, a media specialist, writes from Lagos, Nigeria. He can be reached via Jeromeutomi@yahoo.com/08032725374