Views: Visits 6 Nigeria’s herder-farmer conflict could escalate to wider violence if federal and state governments fail to implement the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP), the International Crisis Group (ICG) has warned. In a new 26-page report published on its website on Tuesday, titled ‘Ending Nigeria’s Herder-Farmer Crisis: The Livestock Reform Plan’, the Brussels-based global conflict research and prevention organization described the NLTP as the “most comprehensive strategy yet” towards ending herder-farmer violence which has claimed thousands of lives in the country in recent years. Launched in January 2019 and designed to run till 2028, the plan was initiated by the federal government, following consultations with states governments, under the National Economic Council which is chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Over the last few months, Nigeria has experienced a worrying spate of kidnappings and violent attacks. Boko Haram insurgents have long terrorized the north of the country and are responsible for some of the violence, but so are organized crime syndicates, which have come to adopt kidnap-and-ransom as a business model. So-called bandits have abducted more than 600 schoolchildren since December, including in two mass kidnappings reminiscent of the Chibok schoolgirls incident that captivated the world in 2014. Armed marauders have killed scores of civilians and security forces in recent months and kidnapped hundreds of Nigerians from villages, schools, and motorways across the country.
Introduction
On Saturday, March 20, 2021, Samuel Ioraer Ortom, politician, farmer, former Minister of State for Trade and Investment, and now Governor of Benue escaped death by whiskers when assailants suspected to be herders waylaid him on his way back from his farm. According to Ortom, about 15 herders who were dressed in black outfits ambushed him and his security personnel. In his words “…. I went to my farm along Gboko road. And, on our way back, we started hearing some gunshots and we discovered people who were dressed in black, and from experience, we now discovered that these are Fulani militias and I did not want to take things for granted because, few days ago, the media were awash with statements from MACBAN who met in Yola, the same place they met in 2016 where they decided that they will take Nigeria, and that every other person is a slave; that was when they started infiltrating the entire country”.
What’s new? In 2019, Nigerian authorities launched a ten-year National Livestock Transformation Plan to curtail the movement of cattle, boost livestock production and quell the country’s lethal herder-farmer conflict. But inadequate political leadership, delays, funding uncertainties and a lack of expertise could derail the project. COVID-19 has exacerbated the challenges.
Why did it happen? Violence fuelled by environmental degradation and competition over land has aggravated long-running tensions in the country’s northern and central regions. A surge in bloodshed in 2018 prompted Nigeria’s federal government to formulate a far-reaching set of reforms for the livestock sector.
Why does it matter? The new Plan represents Nigeria’s most comprehensive strategy yet to encourage pastoralists to switch to ranching and other sedentary livestock production systems. Modernising the livestock sector is key to resolving the herder-farmer conflict, which threatens Nigeria’s
Nigeria’s herder-farmer conflict could escalate to wider violence if federal and state governments fail to implement the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP), the International Crisis Group (ICG) has warned.
In a 26-page report published on its website on Tuesday, titled ‘Ending Nigeria’s Herder-Farmer Crisis: The Livestock Reform Plan’, the Brussels-based global conflict research and prevention organization described the NLTP as the “most comprehensive strategy yet” towards ending herder-farmer violence which has claimed thousands of lives in the country in recent years.
Launched in January 2019 and designed to run till 2028, the plan was initiated by the federal government, following consultations with states governments, under the National Economic Council which is chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.