Farmers/herders conflict: FG urged to change strategy

The Federal Government has been urged to change strategies and domesticate practical policies to end the perennial farmers and herdsmen clashes.

Conflict resolution experts, academics and researches from government and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) made the call yesterday in Abuja at a roundtable on “Learning forum on farmerherder issues for researchers and practitioners in Nigeria”.

The event organised by the Search for Common Ground (Search) Nigeria was a Conflict Prevention and Resolution Forum (CPRF) for researchers and practitioners on farmerherder issues in Nigeria, and is part of its “Amplifying the Expertise of African Peacebuilding Practitioners and Scholars” grant by Carnegie Corporation.

The SGF CPFR Project Lead, Nigeria Mrs Bukola AdemolaAdelehin, said researches have shown that the crisis is more of livelihood and not ethnoreligious and is also peculiar and dynamic in places where the crisis occurred.

She also said that the reality remains that no one can suddenly ban open grazing without putting alternatives and other mechanism in place to cater for the interest of the herders.

Also, Design, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (DMEand L) Manager at SGF Imaobong Akpan said they have been involved in managing and preventing herders/farmers conflicts in Plateau, Kaduna and Nasarawa states and that part of their strategies was to look at both sides and without taking any as victims or aggressor. the