Nigeria: Conflicts over Access to Land will Remain a Major Problem for the Nigerian Government

Feb 20, 2019 | Mervyn Piesse, Future Directions International
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Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari was elected in 2015, promising to improve security, reduce corruption and rejuvenate the economy. At the time, Boko Haram, an Islamist group based in the north-east, posed the greatest threat to state security. It drove farmers off their land, pushed cattle herders out of the region and disrupted trade, all of which weakened food security in north-eastern Nigeria. While the security threat posed by the group has diminished during Buhari’s term in office, it and the Islamic State West Africa Province, a faction that split off from Boko Haram in 2016, continue to terrorise parts of the north-east.