Restructuring for Resolution of Herdsmen-Farmers Conflicts

Feb 18, 2021 | Samson Akinola
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To the Executive Governors of Osun, Oyo, Ondo and Ekiti states, this is a summary of a proposal titled, “Restructuring for Resolution of Herdsmen-Farmers Conflicts and Peace-Building through Polycentric Planning in Nigeria”, which the author designed in 2018 and sent to His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari and copied: (1) President of the Senate, (2) Speaker of the House of Representatives, (3) The Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Governors of Benue, Plateau, Zamfara, Kaduna, Adamawa, Cross Rivers, Delta, Ekiti, Katsina, Nasarawa, Niger and Taraba States via courier service on 9th July, 2018.

Unfortunately, no action was taken and the crisis has become more complicated now and metamorphosed into kidnapping across the country. The attached summary is an extract from the 58-page detailed step-by-step Africentric problem-solving strategies/actions starting from the federal to state, LG and ward/community levels. If His Excellency is interested, the author can adapt the proposal for your state for implementation.

This proposal requires His Excellency’s attention now because the recent alarming rate of killing of human beings is a great concern and the author felt the need to adapt the 58-page proposal to the state in order to reverse this ugly trend and stop the bloodshed and the destruction of property. Though the conflict is historical, the current tempo and dimension of the crisis engendered by herders and farmers conflicts across several states of Nigeria have resulted into the death of not less than 4,097 people, while 53 villages, 1,422 houses were destroyed and burnt. In 2016, statistics showed that Nigeria lost not less than $13.7bn (47%) of the IGR in the affected states, while over 62,000 people were displaced.

This grim statistics confirmed that these farmers-herdsmen’s conflicts have invariably become a threat to peace, security, unity and development in Nigeria. The consequence of self-defence by individuals and communities would be catastrophic for the country – ‘prevention is better than cure.’