veryday as I read the bible it becomes clearer that this is not an ordinary book. This book is inspired by the Holy Spirit for generations. The bible is truly God�s manual for His products - human beings. How to live together in harmony, grow in knowledge, use the knowledge to advance themselves and live a better life. To gain insight to how they came to this world, how they will exit and where they will exit to in eternity through death.

It is amazing how the bible teaches about political ideology, especially democracy and the three arms of government: the executive, the legislature and the the judiciary in one breath �For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.� Isaiah 33:22.

That is how the Holy Spirit has inspired me to deal with the issue of herdsmen in our home country.

In the story above they asked Jesus is it proper to heal on the sabbath. He told them if their sheep fell into a well will they pick it up on a sabbath day? If the cow is in trouble will you care for the cow? Will you abandon the cow? He said �no way, we shall do everything to make sure the cow is alive and well� Now if we so value the cow how about human beings for whom the cows are meant!

For some years now in our country Nigeria, we have seen how some herdsmen have put more value on cows than human beings. The Teacher of teachers, the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, the maker of the universe is saying to the three arms of government, the solution to the herdsman crises in Nigeria is simple; let these three arms in their desire to end the crises have one goal and philosophy-that the Man is more valuable than cows. If the government can use this as basis to handle laws, and execute laws about ranching, open grazing, farmers, herdsmen the crises will fizzle away. How do we resolve the herdsmen biblically:

1. Develop a proper philosophy. Currently, the school of thought where cows are more valuable than humans is not working. God did not create men for cows, but the exact opppsite, cows for men. �And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth� Gen 1:28. . We are to have dominion over animals , use animals for food.

2. Government should not be biased. Nigeria is a nation of over 200 million people, so many businesses are taking place from agriculture to mining, manufacturing and countless others. Herding is just another business, government should not make it a national agenda above others. Let the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria ( MACBAN) do their business. Why is the government overtly intrested in cattle? The fact that the President is a professional cattle rearer, should be a plus to the nation. He should be able to apply cattle rearing experience over the years to manage this perennial crises.

3. Remove AK-47 from Herdsmen. Over the years Nigerians have loved eating cows. The cattle rearers that we grew up to know are simple Fulanis spread across the length and breath of Nigeria from North to South and West to East living in peace with their hosts. Trouble came when suddenly the cattle rearers started carrying lethal weapons. No farmer is comfortable seeing a cattle rearer with Ak- 47. I don�t think the AK-47 is being used to protect cows, but to kill man. And Men are more valuable than cows. It will not be easy for them to surrender their AK- 47. That is where the legislatures, law enforcement agencies and the executive arm come in. That is the beauty of democracy.

4. Don�t allow cows to precipitate disintegration of Nigeria. The Yorubas say- a ma npe gbon ni a ko ki npe go. Meaning our gathering together should generate more wisdom than foolishness. I am not a supporter of disintegration of Nigeria. The North needs the South, The West needs the East and vice versa. We all need one another.
   Nigerians are known all over the world as highly intelligent, resourceful, educated, tolerant and highly formidable people. It will be a shame on all of us if we disintegrate just because we cannot handle cows. Paul says if eating cows will make my brethren to fall I will rather not eat meat. If cows is what will break Nigeria then let us handle it amicably. We are a nation with great resolves. The problem is the parochial, nepotistic, tribalistic approach of some leaders to issues. No business is greater than the collective will of the people.

Conclusion. People should see cows for what they are - meat that God has provided for humans to eat. We must shun the Adamic mentality - �Adam where art thou� God says, �have you eating the fruit I said you should not eat�- �The woman you gave me , gave it to me and I ate� he replied, meaning you should not have given me the woman, my life would have been better. Is that true? God did not make mistake in giving us cows to provide protein for our balanced diet.

Let us continue to eat cows but let Man be accorded the respect, dignity they deserve over cows. Let the herdsmen stop killing human beings in preference to cows - Jesus said - how much more is a man more valuable than a sheep(cow).Shalom!

Pastor Amos Dada is the District Superintendent of Christ Apostolic Church Bethel, Toronto and the Convener of International Gathering of Eagles conference. Subscribe to his channel on YouTube, follow on Twitter/dada_amos and on Facebook. [email protected]. +1 6474308936.