Causes of conflict between Fulani herdsmen and farmers.


By Christopher Ndubuisi.

Some factors have been considered to be responsible for many of the conflicts that happen between the farmers and Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria. The factors are stated as follows.

Firstly, unauthorised encroachment into farmlands have led to serious conflicts between the farmers and herdsmen in recent times, because of the damage they cause to crops and fallow lands left to replenish the nutrients after long years of use. The herdsmen's cows often stray into the farmlands of the farmers without permission and destroy crop nurseries or full-grown crops, which they hope to harvest and sell in the near future. This attitude, no doubt, provokes the farmers to go after their animals (according to Eme Okechukwu and Dr Ngwu Elias in a face-to-face interview on 05 April 2017). Okoli and Atelhe (2014:80) reveal that the shrinking of ecological space and resorts creates an atmosphere of eco-scarcity, which raises the stakes and puts a premium on the available resources. What usually results from this is fierce competition and a desperate struggle for subsistence. In this context, therefore, conflict not only becomes inevitable; it simply becomes a matter of survival.

Secondly, the Fulani herdsmen use other people to buy land for them in their own name while they lie to the natives that they are people buying the land for one business or the other. However, the owners of the land discover later that they have been tricked by the herdsmen when they see the land being used by herdsmen for cattle business, contrary to their will; this leads to conflicts (Odo Damian and Uwaegbute Kingsley in an interview on 05 April 2017).

Thirdly, climate change is one of the major causes of conflicts between farmers and herdsmen. This is so because when there is unfavourable weather the herdsmen will be compelled to leave their original habitation to another area for greener pastures. Lending support to this, Gleick (2010:331-332) says that climate change has been tipped as the greatest single factor to induce migration and population displacement. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this will affect people displaced by shoreline erosion, coastal flooding and agricultural disruption. According to Ibenwa, Nwokocha and Okoli (2017:290), migration is the movement of people from one geographical region to another for the purpose of taking up permanent or semipermanent residence.

Fourthly, lack of political will by the government to arrest and punish the offenders adequately is one of the factors fuelling the activities of the herdsmen in Nigeria today. A case in point was what happened in Nimbo in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area and in Enugu town in 2016, all in Enugu State. The Fulani herdsmen attacked farmers at Nimbo because of a misunderstanding over grazing fields and killed over 50 persons and destroyed their property, worth thousands of naira (Mamah et al. 2016). From that time to the present no serious arrest has been made and the Fulani come back at intervals to attack famers and villagers on their farms. A few months after the attack at Nimbo and Enugu, Fulani herdsmen entered a farm to feed their flocks and while they were doing that the owners of the farm land came and chased them and their cattle away. Sequel to this, at midnight the Fulani herdsmen came and attacked the people, killing a pregnant woman.

Fifthly, the inability of government in most cases to respond quickly to distress calls and early warning signs is an issue that promotes conflict. This negative attitude has made it difficult to stop crises that would have been prevented if government had responded accordingly to distress calls and warnings.


http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222018000100053&lng=pt&nrm=iso&tlng=pt

You are zero in history.
You are zero in analysis