By Al-Amin Isa
There comes a moment in history when a region must decide whether it will continue repeating old mistakes or seize the opportunity in front of it. For Northern Nigeria, that moment is now.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has issued one of the most consequential directives for our region in decades: Restructure security deployments, empower forest guards with modern arms, and revive grazing reserves into full-scale ranches and livestock settlements. If Northern leaders truly care about insecurity, unemployment, food production, and economic revival, then this is not just another presidential order. It is a lifeline.
A New Security Architecture: Forest Guards as a Northern Workforce:
For years, bandits have operated freely because our forests are ungoverned spaces, vast, unmapped territories where criminals move without resistance. By directing security chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police to restructure deployments and arm forest guards, the President has opened a channel that Northern governors should embrace immediately. Because this is more than a security reform, it is an employment goldmine. Imagine each state recruiting, training, arming, and deploying: 2,000 to 5,000 young men and women as forest guards. Equipped with surveillance tools, mobility bikes, drones, and communication systems. Securing forests, ranches, farmlands, and rural communities. This single move can absorb tens of thousands of unemployed youth, reducing crime at the root and injecting stability into rural economies. This is how you kill two birds with one stone:
• Security improves
• Youth unemployment drops
No Northern governor should sleep on this.
Rehabilitating Grazing Reserves: From Conflict Zones to Cash Machines.
The President has also mandated the Vice President to work with NEC to identify which grazing reserves can be salvaged and transformed into modern ranches. This is where the North must act boldly. Our region holds the majority of Nigeria’s cattle and livestock population, yet we earn almost nothing from it. We suffer the conflicts, the migration pressures, the farmer–herder clashes, but enjoy none of the economic benefits that properly managed livestock industries generate globally.
Modern ranches mean:
• Dairy production
• Feed mills
• Meat processing plants
• Leather industries
• Veterinary services
• Large-scale employment
• Tax revenues
• Investment attraction
The President said it clearly: “Let us turn these conflict zones into economic opportunities and prosperity.” And he is right. Why should we allow unmanaged grazing fields to become battlefields when they can be transformed into billion-naira agricultural hubs?
Land Belongs to the States — So the Ball Is in the Governors’ Court.
Under the Constitution, land is a state matter. This gives Northern governors full control over this transformation. The President has opened the door. But only governors can walk through it by: Allocating land for ranch development. Partnering with private investors. Working with NEC to identify salvageable grazing reserves. Creating livestock settlements that attract agribusiness capital. Integrating forest guards into state-level security frameworks. If the North misses this moment, the blame cannot shift to Abuja.
The tools are already in our hands.
The Economic Math Is Clear: A single well-run ranch can employ: Hundreds directly.
Thousands indirectly (transporters, feed producers, veterinary services, artisans, market workers). Forest guards, ranch workers, veterinary officers, extension workers, feed mill operators, processors, together they form a new circular economy.
Northern Nigeria can transform from a zone of insecurity to a livestock industrial powerhouse, feeding African markets and dominating Nigeria’s food value chain.
This is not theory. It is the same model used by countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, Brazil, and Australia to build billion-dollar livestock industries. We already have the land, the livestock, and the youth. All we need now is vision and leadership.
Northern Opinion Leaders Must Stop Sitting on the Fence.
This is not the time for: Endless meetings. Emotional debates. Political hesitation. It is the time for action.
Traditional rulers, scholars, business magnates, legislators, youth associations, and civil society must push their governors to grab this opportunity with both hands. If the North wants peace, it must build an economy that gives the youth purpose and makes rural areas safe again. If the North wants development, it must create industries, not waiting endlessly for Abuja. If the North wants unity, it must reduce the tensions that arise from unmanaged grazing and insecurity.
A Direct Message to Northern Governors.
You have been given:
• A national mandate
• Legal authority over land
• Security backing
• A new economic model
• A workforce ready to be deployed
All that remains is political will. History will not remember those who complained; it will remember those who built solutions.
The North Can Rise Again — If It Chooses To.
For too long, we have allowed insecurity to define our region. For too long, we have let unemployment destroy our youth. For too long, we have missed economic opportunities sitting right under our feet.
Today, the North has a chance to rewrite its future.
Arm the forest guards.
Rehabilitate the grazing reserves.
Build the ranches.
Employ the youth.
Transform insecurity into prosperity.
The opportunity is here.
Now we must seize it.
