(DDM) – President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed Vice President Kashim Shettima to urgently convene a special National Executive Council (NEC) meeting focused exclusively on resolving Nigeria’s escalating ranching crisis amid persistent farmer-herder clashes across multiple states.
DDM gathered that the President’s directive comes at a time of renewed violence linked to land disputes, open grazing routes, and longstanding tensions between farming communities and migrating herders.
The presidency described the situation as increasingly volatile, with deadly confrontations continuing to threaten food security, rural stability, and national cohesion.
The order mandates the Vice President to assemble state governors and key federal officials for what is expected to be a decisive policy conversation on modern ranching, land management, and security reforms.
However, no official date has been set for the emergency NEC session.
The development follows a separate directive earlier reported by SaharaReporters, in which President Tinubu ordered the National Security Adviser (NSA) to commence immediate training, arming and nationwide deployment of additional forest guards.
The President’s media aide, Sunday Dare, disclosed the directive in a statement on Wednesday, noting that the measure forms part of a renewed security strategy designed to tackle rising incidents of kidnapping, banditry and rural terrorism.
According to the presidency, the President warned that the country must now adopt an uncompromising and coordinated approach to the widening security threats.
Tinubu was quoted as saying that Nigeria continues to battle rampant cases of violent abductions, terror attacks, and armed incursions that endanger communities from the north to the south.
He insisted that all available security resources, both federal and state-backed, must be mobilised to defend citizens more effectively.
“We face challenges here and there of kidnapping and terrorism,” the President said during the briefing.
“We need all the forces we can utilize.”
“We need to protect our people.”
The upcoming NEC meeting is expected to bring long-delayed decisions on ranching infrastructure, state-level adoption of modern grazing systems, and sustainable solutions to the decades-long clashes that continue to claim lives and cripple agricultural regions across the federation.
Observers believe the session may also influence broader reforms in land administration, security funding and interagency cooperation.
As tensions persist and communities brace for federal intervention, stakeholders across the country await the final date of the meeting, which many hope will mark a turning point in Nigeria’s struggle to end the recurring farmer-herder violence.
