Farmers'--Herders' Violent Conflicts and the Politicization of Transhumant Pastoralism in Nigeria - Research

Conflicts between nomadic herdsmen and sedentary farmers in Nigeria have grown markedly over the past decade, with increasingly violent flare-ups spreading throughout central and southern parts of the country. Relying on content analyses from secondary sources and eco-violence theory as an explanatory framework, the article seeks to explain the farmers-herders conflicts in Nigeria, the push factors for the herdsmen's nomadism and how the struggle for environmental resources occasioned by the herdsmen's seasonal transhumance are often transformed/politicized by the sucking in of some variables such as the country's identity/ethnic politics and problems like religious and political conflicts. The article also discusses the impacts of the farmers-herders' conflicts in Nigeria and recommends possible ways of ameliorating those conflicts.