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The Federal Government has stressed that the recently clashes between herdsmen and farmers in some parts of the country could affect Nigeria’s unity.
Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, who spoke the opening session of the Strategic Stakeholders Meeting on the Pastoralists/Sedentary Farmers Conflict in Nigeria held in Abuja recently, noted that a complex approach to tackle the problem would be looked into.
He also said the incessant conflicts between pastoralists and sedentary farmers pose grave implication to Nigeria’s internal security.
Dambazau explained that the stakeholders meeting was initiated so as to arrive at a common understanding of the problems underlying the conflicts and to harness institutional memory of past policy interventions.
The Minister further stated that another objective of the meeting was to decide on the membership and format for a subsequent opening of all-stakeholders’ meeting on the conflicts, adding that the membership would comprise the ethnic, religious, geopolitical, civil societies and other actors directly involved in the conflict, in order to arrive at a lasting solution.
He intensified that a further objective of the meeting was to identify any laws and regulations that impact on the conflict, so as to inform the design of a definitive policy intervention that will lead to abatement of the conflict.
According to him, the conflict mostly happens in the Niger-Benue River Basin because of its rich pasture and water resources where pastoralists converge seasonally to graze their cattle.
Dambazau affirmed that the conflict has spread beyond the Niger-Benue River trough to the South-Eastern and Western Nigeria where violence and opportunistic criminal angles to the conflict such as cattle-rustling, armed robbery and kidnapping have been added to the mix, resulting to loss of lives, dislocation of people and communities, and disruption of socioeconomic activity as well as threat to the integrity and peaceful coexistence of the Nigerian state.
He revealed that there have been recent reports that the Boko Haram terrorists were taking advantage of the situation to further their agenda.
Earlier in a welcome address, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Bassey Okon Akpanyung bemoaned the many lives lost to the conflicts, saying the lives of both the principal actors and innocent standers-by were usually lost in the process.
He opined that the meeting was a brainstorming session purposed to identify the principal cause, main actors and narratives of the conflict as well as look at its dynamism over the years.
The meeting had participants drawn from relevant ministries, departments and agencies of government.
