Two lecturers in the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy, Veritas University, Bwari, Abuja, Dr ObodoIjie and Dr Isaac Otegwu, have linked the unending conflicts between herders and farmers in the North Central to economic interests.
Dr Obodo stated this while reviewing the book: The Root Cause of Farmers-Herders Crisis in North Central Nigeria written by Plangshak Suchi and Sallek Musa of the Department of Sociology, the University of Jos.
In the book, published by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, the authors noted that recent drought and desertification occasioned by the impact of global warming and its consequent resource drought had culminated in an increase in movement of herders southward in search of pasture for their herds.
This southward movement, according to studies identified by the authors, engendered farmland encroachment and inevitably generated conflicts.
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The authors also mentioned population growth and poor town planning, porous borders and ineffective border control among others, as possible factors in the escalation of conflicts between farming communities and herders.
While reviewing the book, Obodo noted that the conflicts, which have reduced access to farms, spiked theft, destruction of farms, killing of animals and reduction in sales of farm produce negatively impacted on the economic activities and livelihood of women especially.
He said: “Women have a weak capacity for economic resilience, as women and children who they depend on for labour are forced to find alternative means of livelihood like begging for alms, domestic help while children are made to hawk or work as labourers on farms with others doing menial jobs.
“This in turn has increased the level of vulnerability of children, as some are maltreated, and some are used for transactional sex and drug abuse. This results in some of these women and children incurring sexually transmitted diseases. Thus, women and children were badly affected. Women also involved themselves in prostitution to feed themselves and their children.”
On his part, Dr Otegwu said the research effort was useful as veritable reference material for further research by scholars.
He stated: “It is a must-read for policymakers in their search for lasting solutions to the recurrent clashes between farming communities and herders.”
According to Otegwu, other groups that would find the work useful are security agencies and traditional rulers in their quest to foster peaceful co-existence between the aggrieved groups.