Opinion

Why Nigeria Must Take Animal Identification Seriously:

Published

10 months ago

December 16, 2025

A New Book Review
By Adewale A. Adeyeye, PhD Nigeria’s national security challenges are often discussed in terms of insurgency, banditry, and terrorism. Yet, one persistent and deeply destabilising issue that continues to receive insufficient policy attention is cattle rustling, especially amid insecurity fuelled by farmer-herder conflicts. In a new book, Animal Identification System and National Security:

A Study of North-West Nigeria, Dr. Elsie Uduak Mbuk-Onuwuhafua, FCVSN, mni, makes a compelling case that the theft of livestock is not merely an agricultural problem but a national security emergency, and one that technology can effectively and efficiently help to address.

The book arrives at a critical moment. Across north-west Nigeria, cattle rustling has fuelled violent conflicts, displaced communities, impoverished pastoralists, and strengthened criminal networks.

Dr. Mbuk-Onuwuhafua, a fellow of the College of Veterinary Surgeons (FCVSN) and Member (mni) of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State, argues that Nigeria’s heavy reliance on military operations to combat this menace, though understandable, has produced limited results.

Her central thesis is simple but powerful: without a robust Animal Identification System (AIS), Nigeria will continue to fight the scourge of cattle rustling blindly.

From the outset, the author situates animal identification within a broader national security framework and demonstrates how AIS, already in use in several countries, can enhance animal surveillance, trace stolen livestock, disrupt criminal supply chains, and support intelligence gathering. Importantly, the book does not treat technology as a silver bullet.

Instead, it frames AIS as part of an interconnected system involving security agencies, ministries, breeders’ associations, and technology institutions such as the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA).

Drawing on General Systems Theory and the Technological Acceptance Model, the book explains both how AIS fits into Nigeria’s security ecosystem and why its adoption may have been slow.

This theoretical grounding strengthens the book’s argument, moving it beyond advocacy into evidence-based policy analysis.

Data for the study were collected from a wide range of stakeholders, including the Nigerian Police Force, the Military, NSCDC, ONSA, Federal and State Agricultural Ministries, research institutes, and cattle breeders themselves.

This breadth gives the findings robustness, credibility, and practical relevance.One of the book’s strongest contributions is its comparative perspective.

Dr. Mbuk-Onuwuhafua shows how countries such as the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Uruguay have successfully adopted animal identification to improve cattle traceability and curb rustling. The author traces the history of animal identification methods, from traditional branding and ear tagging to modern digital and satellite-based systems adopted in much more developed climes.

African examples, from Kenya to Senegal, demonstrate that AIS is not a luxury of the Global North but a practical solution adaptable to developing contexts.

Also, while acknowledging Nigeria’s endorsement of the 2015 Pretoria Declaration on Animal Identification, the author exposes the gap between policy commitments and implementation.

The launch of the National Animal Identification and Traceability System (NAITS) in 2022 was a step forward, but adoption across the north-west states has remained inconsistent and uneven.

Nonetheless, Katsina State stands out as an exception, of public policy action exploring the possibilities of AIS, while elsewhere security responses remain overwhelmingly militarized.

Consequently, the book argues that Nigeria’s slow progress in fully adopting AIS appears less a matter of feasibility and more a question of political will.Perhaps the most sobering part of the book is its analysis of why AIS has not taken root in north-west Nigeria.

The barriers are many: low literacy among herders, fear that technology could harm cattle, high installation costs, nomadic lifestyles, weak legal frameworks, and limited awareness of the benefits of AIS.

These findings suggest that technology alone is not enough.

Any serious AIS policy must be accompanied by education, sensitization, incentives, legislation, and sustained engagement with pastoral communities.

The book’s conclusion is both cautious and hopeful. Military intervention, the author acknowledges, will remain necessary in the short term.

But without complementary technological and policy solutions, cattle rustling will continue to undermine national security.

A national AIS policy, backed by law and supported by stakeholder education, could shift Nigeria from reactive force to preventive governance. In a country where security challenges are increasingly complex and interconnected, this book is a timely intervention.

Policymakers, security agencies, agricultural administrators, and development practitioners would benefit from reading it. Ending cattle rustling will require more than boots on the ground; it will require technology, data, sensitization, coordination, and political will. Dr. Mbuk-Onuwuhafua has shown us a viable path.

The question now is whether Nigeria is ready to follow it.

Professor Adewale A. Adeyeye writes from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine! at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, and is Editor-in-Chief of the Sokoto Journal of Veterinary Sciences.

Share on Facebook

Opinion

RE: BLAIR “HAS QUESTIONS TO ANSWER” OVER SUPPORT FOR BRITAIN WHILE ADVISING NIGERIA

Published

2 days ago

October 20, 2026

The Gleamer

(A rejoinder to Gordon Rayner’s article of October 18,2026 in the Telegraph, UK
By Kehinde Bamigbetan
After reading this article, particularly the denials from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and the Federal Government of Nigeria, one is bound to question the editorial judgment that gives this piece any value.

In short, what did Gordon Rainer set out to do with this publication? Put a shine on Jupiter’s false and thoroughly empty narrative? Set up a former Prime Minister for blackmail and opprobrium? Or revive a dead case before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes?

Whichever, Rainer presents propositions which swallow their answers. His first argument that Blair might have undermined British national security interests is contradicted by the disclosure that the TBI has no contract to advise the Federal Government of Nigeria.

His second argument, that Jupiter was denied the execution of its licence, is contradicted by the fact that the company is unknown under Nigerian law. Rainer then admits knowing this fact and introduces the company as Jupiter’s partners.

For clarity and the benefit of his readers, these companies—Basin Mining Limited and Range Mining Limited—lost their licences for failing to pay annual service fees. Basin, for instance, owes N1,223,750,000, about £691,368.

The licences were revoked after the companies ignored several notices to fulfil their contractual obligations to the Nigerian Mining Cadastral Office. Penalties for non-payment are increasing daily, and the legal process to recover the funds is underway.

Rather than rescue its partners by paying their fees and penalties or allow the international settlement court to determine its case, Jupiter has mounted an international self-help campaign of calumny and economic sabotage against the government and people of Nigeria, using methods that threaten Nigeria’s security and diplomatic interests.

We believe Rainer is its latest innocent recruit, hoodwinked into propagating a false narrative by appealing to British national security interests when, in fact, Jupiter’s partners are, under Nigerian law, economic and security risks whose continued defiance of Nigeria’s laws endangers centuries of Britain-Nigeria relations.

The question Rainer should ask: if, indeed, Jupiter has a cast-iron case, why is it shedding crocodile tears and shopping for sympathy with false pretences and narratives?

Let’s give the clue: Jupiter’s promoter, Steve Davis, has leeched on Nigeria’s presidents since 1999 by pretending to be an international mining expert, and he has acquired an ego and assets far out of proportion to his financial and technical status.
He is so comfortable living above the law in Nigeria that compliance with regulatory provisions is a taboo, an affront to his bloated ego as a self-deluded “founder of Nigeria’s modern mining sector.”

Davis had a good time living his ego until Dele Alake became Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development in August 2023 and immediately launched a clean-up of the sector focused on zero-tolerance for non-compliance with the provisions of the Nigeria Minerals and Mining Law 2007, a law that Davis boasts he contributed to making and should set an example by encouraging compliance.

The Minister was shocked that the Nigerian Mining Cadastre had a huge amount of unpaid statutory fees despite the government’s investment in the Electronic Mining Cadastre Plus (EMC+) automation, which digitised the licensing process and upgraded services to the mining sector.

In line with the law, the minister ensured debtors were duly notified, and defaulters duly gazetted before revoking their licences for flouting the regulation on the payment of annual service fees.

In November 2023, the minister revoked at least 1,663 licences, a decision that showed it was no longer business as usual under the new sheriff in town.

To show the government has a human face, it opened a three-month restitution window to address complaints and feedback indicating cases of extenuating circumstances.

But still basking in the euphoria of an ego that has outlived its era, Davis discouraged his partners from taking advantage of these opportunities for remorse. Instead, he threatened to exploit his global networks to frustrate the Federal Government of Nigeria.

He wasn’t joking. He launched a global disinformation campaign from his native Australia to Canada, from the United States to Europe. However, his lies evaporated as soon as the facts were laid bare.

Davis pulled his most ambitious stunt so far during Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s official visit to the United Kingdom in March this year, when he polluted the air with narratives designed to set Nigeria against the West by spreading blatant falsehoods and playing the victim.

But, as he found out to his misery, the whole public relations game was dead on arrival. A comprehensive statement clarifying the issues to the highly intelligent British media sent him into the cold.

All we ask is that journalists refer to the eternal maxim of the journalism profession whenever Davis knocks on their door: if in doubt, leave it out.

When a story like this betrays so many contradictions, the rule is not to encourage its spread. Every responsible journalist has the moral duty to kill it.

Kehinde Bamigbetan is a Journalist and Special Adviser to Dele Alake, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Federal Republic of Nigeria

Share on Facebook