The forgotten identity divide: Unifying Nigerian goats

This week, I wanted to write again on recent killings amongst Nigerians based on ethno-religious divides and felt a deep sense of fatigue – I have been doing it for decades and the problems are getting worse not better. Fed up with the Nigerian humans, I thought I should write on the easier task of unifying our goats. The idea was from our house worker who just lost a relation and was directed to provide nine goats for the funeral ceremony. She told me that the instruction came with a clear conditionality, the goats must be proper southern goats and northern goats will not be accepted. Sigh. Nigerians!

Then I remembered that my university in Zaria, Ahmadu Bello, had a scientific project in the 1980s to produce a Nigerian goat through cross breeding the southern and northern species. I called the university and asked for the number of the Director of the National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI) and asked him whether they have finally produced the Nigerian goat.

The Director, Prof. M. Y. Hassan responded that he had no idea what I was talking about, (he might also have thought I was nuts as he does not know me and my sometimes-funny questions). I explained that I was a lecturer in the university in the 1980s and 1990s when NAPRI started a cross-breeding programme to produce the Nigerian goat. He said he was not yet in the faculty at that time but would find out and get back to me.

I was pleasantly surprised at how conscientious Prof. Hassan was. Four hours later, he sent me a brief explaining the project and ended the report with something we are so used to, it was a good, promising project which had to close because government, which initiated it, stopped the funding. I called a few old NAPRI staff for additional information on the story of the Nigerian goat project which you, my dear readers, can enjoy today.

The Nigerian goat community is divided into two distinct identities that have difficulties co-existing in the same ecological space. In the South, you have the West African Dwarf goat which is indigenous to the forest zone. It is short, very meaty but does not produce much milk and is above all, trypanotolerant.  This means it has the ability to survive and remain productive despite infection with trypanosomes, the parasites that cause trypanosomiasis (also known as sleeping sickness). They are not immune to the infection, but their bodies can effectively control the parasite’s development and limit the disease’s effects, particularly the anaemia caused.

The northern goat is found in the Sahel and Sudan savannah of Northern Nigeria and has a big, tall and lanky frame but does not have a lot of meat. Scientists call it the Maradi red goat and it is especially noted for its good skin which has been a valuable export commodity for centuries.

For 500 years, the famous Moroccan leather exported all over the world from Morocco was actually Maradi red goat skin traded from Northern Nigeria across the desert. It is bred by households all over the region but also by Fulani cattle herdsmen who appreciate its good milk yield. When they take it south during the dry season, however, they suffer a lot of loss because of its major drawback of poor resistance to trypanosomiasis.

Maradi red has also developed a high capacity to transform limited vegetation available in its poor diet to survive and indeed prosper.

The project objective was to use cross breeding between Maradi red and southern dwarf to produce goats that would provide improved meat and milk yields, survive well in every part of the country and have a high level of trypanotolerance. Ahmadu Bello University set up a cross-breeding centre in Ubiaja in Edo State to produce the Nigerian goat.

The project was steered by NAPRI’s Small Ruminant Research Programme which has vast experience in breeding, selecting and supplying improved males to farmers. The crossbred goats being both milk-producing and trypanotolerant, would be a valuable asset for sustainable milk production in the southern part of Nigeria, hence its location in the then Bendel State. The project was to help address the ever-increasing demand for livestock production to cater for the nutritional needs of the rapidly growing human population in Nigeria.

The results of the project were promising but then, the sponsors – the Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure under the Babangida administration was scrapped, funding ceased and the unified Nigerian goat died the normal Nigerian death.

The Nigerian State is very good at initiating great projects that would address the needs of the country. Unfortunately, both planning and public administration have collapsed and most projects that are initiated collapse before objectives are achieved.

The Ajaokuta Iron and Steel project is maybe the most famous that could have set us up on the path to industrialisation decades ago, but it remains in shambles. Nigeria has not been able to build on the gains of the Second National Development Plan and subsequently, planning itself was sidelined in the country.

When the story of great projects started and abandoned by kleptocracies whose only interest have been contracts and bribes, we will continue to lament and tell stories as we do confirm projects are part of our national sports. Nigerians, should we revive the unified goat project?

The article was earlier published on  April 18, 2025

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