Herdsmen/Farmers’ Conflicts: Authorities Caution On Reprisal Attacks, Security ~ Naija Breaking.

A peace and conflict resolution expert and Director General of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), Prof. Oshita Oshita has warned that retaliatory and reprisal measures by aggrieved individuals and communities occasioned by the herdsmen attacks in Nigeria could provoke a security dilemma.

Oshita gave this warning at a roundtable meeting involving peacebuilding specialists and media partners to discuss and locate option to recent farmer and herdsmen attacks in Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba and Plateau states, organised by the Search for Popular Ground, in Abuja recently.

He stated the vicious cycle of attacks and counter-attacks in the ongoing farmers / herders’ violent conflicts in some parts of the nation is not the best solution or answer but could further worsen the currently alarming circumstance.
He stressed an urgent want to stop bloodletting and to forestall any action that could compound the genocidal situation that the nation has delved into.

By seeking retaliatory measure via arms bearing in self-defence as being canvassed for by a section of the country, he said, "we are provoking safety dilemma. This appears like the road to Somalia. We require to take a definite step to stop the bloodletting."
Oshita stressed the will need to find lasting option to the trouble. He, hence, provided 3 recommendations, which includes the will need to reconfigure the safety architecture of the country the need by unique ethnic nationalities to have a true perception of a single an additional and the want for the nation to have the image of "whom we are and where we are heading".
"This is a really destabilising phenomenon and we need to all rise up to do all issues to stem the predicament," he mentioned.

He also referred to as for sincerity in the way difficulties of farmer-herder conflict is being reported, saying perceptions are becoming built into it with people’s narratives taking political, religious and ethnic dimensions. This, he said, is anti-national cohesion.
The Director-General charged the civil society organisations to be up and carrying out with sincerity of goal, mainly because, to him, the civil society space is becoming slippery and unpredictable arguing that some organisations are becoming biased and not speaking the mind of the popular man.

"We have to have to be authentic because if you are discussing a severe trouble without having being authentic, it implies you are not telling us what could support us to come out of that dilemma. We need to be ready to implement recommendations towards sustainable option
"We will need to inaugurate a sincere platform for dialogue based on the truth that we are one individuals, 1 nation and due to the fact we want to have a sustainable economy that will drive this nation in this 21st century and beyond," he mentioned.

Giving an overview of project and objectives of the media roundtable, the Project Lead, Forum on Farmer-Herder Relations in Nigeria (FFARN), Mrs. Bukola Ademola-Adelehin said the roundtable aimed at bringing with each other peace and safety scholars, practitioners, policymakers and media experts to reflect on existing dynamics of farmer-herder conflict in Nigeria.

The roundtable was supported by the United States Agency for international Improvement (USAID) via the Conflict Mitigation and Management project (Creating Bridges involving Farmers and Herders) implemented by Search for Popular Ground.
This, she stated, would give FFARN a likelihood to present the suggestions of its current policy briefs titled ‘Responses to Conflicts involving Farmers and Herders in the Middle Belt Region of Nigeria’ and ‘The Implications of Open-Grazing Prohibition Laws on relations involving Farmers and Herders in the Middle Belt Region of Nigeria’ for increased awareness of possibilities for peaceful resolution of the conflict.

The two policy documents presented for discussion by the Senior Programme Manager, Middle Belt Programmes, Mr. Sani Suleman, stated violent confrontations involving farmers and herders are old phenomena, which have develop into a defining function of inter-group relations among communities in the Middle Belt area.

He mentioned, "environmental degradation, social manipulation of ethno-religious biases and technological advances has altered relationships that have been historically interdependent and mutually valuable. Conflict involving farmers and herders exist on a large scale both within Nigeria and the higher Lake Chad Basin and Sudan-Sahel area, having said that, states inside Nigeria’s Middle Belt have witnessed a stark relationship transform and an increase in casualties as consequences of this fractured relationship"
He advanced motives for conflicts to include population growth, urbanisation, climate modify and unresolved old conflicts, cattle rustling and theft. He stated six,500 deaths had been recorded involving 2010 and 2015 with 62,000 persons displaced while about $13.7 billion has been lost by the Nigerian government.

Findings, he stated, revealed specific responses by national and state actors as signifies of getting a solution to this perennial dilemma. These, incorporate creation of Grazing Reserve in Northern Nigeria in 1965 with 415 reserves and grazing routes establishment of the National Commission for Nomadic Education to educationally equip the nomads deployments of safety agencies in response to a number of outbreak of violence the establishment of the Wonderful Green Wall Initiative in response to financial, political and security challenges posed by climate change and the failed National Grazing Reserved Bill initiated by the National Assembly in 2016.

Suleman study the positions of Search for Typical Ground as portion of recommendations to address gaps in response to reduce the conflict. Portion of the recommendations consist of charge on the federal government to review existing structure of cattle routes and reserves that Federal Government should really review the existing programme on nomadic education with a view to strengthening the structure of service delivery

Other positions were that the federal government should really utilise option response to conflict resolution beyond deployment of safety agencies, utilizing dialogue and mediation as de-escalation tactics to address proliferation of smaller arms and light weapons, applying mechanism that is neighborhood centred that federal government ought to companion civil security and other non-state actors to leverage on ICT as enabler of cattle monitoring, and that federal government should assistance and strengthening neighborhood policing.

On the implications of Open Grazing Prohibition Laws in the Benue State and the Middle Belt as a whole, Search for Typical Ground said even though the law was a response to the conflict involving farmers and herders in Benue State, "the appropriateness and feasibility of the law to manage the conflict is but to be determined.

"While the federal government lacks the capacity to legislate more than the use of land at the state level, it is having said that vital for it to contemplate performing oversight function in this approach, to ensure that the rights of all citizens are respected as enshrined in the constitution.

"While legislation can be a useful tool to address drivers of conflict, it need to not be employed as a panacea. The situation in Benue State presents a distinctive opportunity for state governments to be conflict sensitive in the improvement and implementation of legislation that addresses the farmer-herder conflict in Nigeria".