Opinion: Towards A Sustainable Resolution of the Farmer-Herder Crisis, By Jibrin Ibrahim
The minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, strongly recommended the development of water and pasture resources within grazing reserves to cater for the interests of pastoralists, who could then be oriented away from areas where extensive farming is on-going. Of course, in the long run, Nigeria and indeed Africa have to plan towards the transformation of pastoralism into settled and modern forms of animal husbandry.
The farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria have grown, spread and intensified over the past decade and today poses a direct threat to national survival. Thousands of people have been killed, communities have been destroyed and so many farmers and pastoralists have lost their lives and property in an extended orgy of killings and destruction that is not only destroying livelihoods but also affecting national cohesion.
Nigeria has about 19 million cattle, much of it in the hands of pastoralists, while the country’s population has grown from 33 million in 1950 to about 200 million today. This phenomenal increase in population has put enormous pressure on land and water resources used by farmers and pastoralists.
Ambassador Chievelor Kaave, the former attorney general of Benue State was of the opinion that we allowed a simple crisis of the management of access to water and pasture resources to develop into a national security crisis. He added that, for too long we “culpably neglected” the pastoral community, neither helping to modernise their livestock methods nor encouraging their children to go to school, and we are paying the price today.
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