Farmer-Herders Crisis As A Dilemma To Development In Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria faces severe internal security challenges especially with political, economic and environmental aspect all of which have a great implication on national development. The primary contributing factor to this threat is farmers-herdsmen crisis, notably marked by incidence of pillaging, rape, killing, kidnapping, destruction of farm crops and hostage taking by the herdsmen. The objectives of the study were to examine the reasons for the farmers'; herdsmen’s crises in Nigeria, identify how farmers-herdsmen' crisis affects food production, economy, and politics in Nigeria and suggest measures that can be employed by the government and non-governmental organizations to maintain sustainable peace between farmers and herdsmen in Nigeria. This study relies on economic theory of conflict which emphasis on competition for natural resources as the root cause of crisis. The study adopted both primary and secondary data collection methods. Four states: Benue, Niger, Ondo and Oyo were selected as the study area due to incessant farmers-herdsmen crisis in those states. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 300 respondents who were randomly selected from each of the state. Structured interview session was also held with seven experts related to the field of study. This category of respondents was purposively selected because they possessed vast knowledge and experience. The secondary data were analysed using regression analysis while the qualitative information gathered from interview sessions was transcribed and subjected to textual analysis and narrative technique. The results showed that the crisis was driven by a combination of factors, including competition for scarce resources, the failure of leaders to provide lasting solution, government biased policies towards one group, the quest for political power and control, ineffective government implementation of policies, individual and group interests as well as ethnic and religious differences. The results further revealed that farmers-herdsmen crises had a negative effect on food production in Nigeria. The results of the study also indicated that the majority of respondents strongly agreed that the government should engage stakeholders, provide support to the concerned parties, establish complaint avenues and promulgate laws to guide against incessant crises between farmers and herdsmen. The study recommends amongst others that the farmers-herdsmen crisis in Nigeria requires a multi-disciplinary and multi stakeholders approach that involves the government, non-governmental organisations, communities and traditional leaders. The government needs to implement effective policies such as conflict resolution mechanism, land use planning, livelihood diversification, dialogue and collaboration that address the root causes of the crisis which has become the order of the day. Also, government should have prioritized regular engagement with concerned parties, provide necessary support, promulgate laws, and establish an avenue for complaint.