UK group moves to curb herdsmen, farmers clashes

The Centre for Democratic Development Research and Training (CEDDERT) in Zaria, and a DFiD project, ENABLE2, are spearheading a move aimed at providing accurate information that would lead to the end of headsmen-farmers clashes in the country.

Speaking on the initiative in Abuja, CEDDERT’s Executive Director, Dr. Abubakar Siddique Mohammed, said: “Over the last three decades, most of the states in the northern part of Nigeria have experienced one form of violent conflict or the other resulting from farmer/pastoralist clashes.

“The information about these conflicts, as reported, paints a depressing picture and points to a future of chaos, social disarray and political instability.”

While decrying the wanton loss of lives and property, Mohammed noted that much of the information pushed out, as factors fanning the ember of disaffection between herdsmen and farmers are not accurate.

“The problem is that much of the available information about herders-pastoralists conflict is inaccurate, one-sided, deliberately misleading or does not give an accurate account of their genesis, causes, nature and patterns.