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Generational Dynamics World View
*** 4-Jun-18 World View -- Violence between herders and farmers surges in Nigeria

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
  • Violence between herders and farmers surges in Nigeria
  • Nigeria's amnesty program in Niger Delta under fire

****
**** Violence between herders and farmers surges in Nigeria
****


[Image: g180603b.jpg]
Boy guarding herd of cattle in Nigeria

I've written frequently about ethnic violence between farmers and
herders in many countries -- Central African Republic, Nigeria,
Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, and even America in the
1800s. The farmers accuse the herders of letting the cattle eat their
crops, while the herders accuse the farmers of planting on land that's
meant for grazing. If the farmers put up fences, then the herders
knock them down.

In Nigeria, the problem has become so serious that it appears that
more people have been killed in conflicts between farmers and herders
than in the conflict with Boko Haram -- or by the militancy in the
Niger Delta in the south of Nigeria.

In the latest incident, in Nigeria's norther state of Zamfara, cattle
thieves killed more than 20 people, and burned down their entire
village.

The incident was described on the BBC by Mary Harper, the Africa
editor (my transcription):

<QUOTE>"In Zamfara state, which is in the far north of
Nigeria, cattle thieves came on motorbikes into a village.
Initially some vigilantes who had been set up by the local
community tried to deal with these thieves who come regularly to
try to steal their cattle. They managed to chase the cattle
thieves away, but then the thieves came back again, and killed
lots of the vigilantes, and other villagers, burned their houses
down, and made off with many, many heads of cattle."<END QUOTE>


Several weeks ago, we reported on the killing of two priests because
of farmer-herder conflicts in Benue State,
in central Nigeria. Harper says that the motives for the
violence in northern versus central Nigeria are the same, but it's
perceived differently by the public because the farmers in central
Nigeria are usually Christian:

<QUOTE>"In northern Nigeria, it's a more a conflict between
settled farmers and herding communities, or it's a criminals who
basically just go into villages and attack nomads, and take their
cattle. Cattle are worth a huge amount of money. There's about
80 million heads of cattle in Nigeria -- they're a precious
resource.

So in the north, because most people are Muslim, it's more a
matter of criminality. But in other parts of Nigeria, especially
in the middle region, many of the farmers are Christian, and many
of the herders are Muslim, so it's being portrayed by some people
as a religious conflict, even though it's actually far more
complicated than that."<END QUOTE>


The violence between farmers and herders in Nigeria appears to getting
more and more serious, and with the huge amount of money involved, the
government seems helpless to do anything about it. According to
Harper:

<QUOTE>"The government faces a huge challenge. It faces a
big insurgency in the northeast with Islamists, militants, Boko
Haram. And then in the south [in the Niger Delta], it has
oil-related violence. So security forces are already very badly
stretched, but at the more people are being killed in this
violence related to cattle and farms, than in either the north
with the Islamist insurgency, or the south. And even though
they've deployed the military to that region, they seem unable to
control it.

And often people say that the people in the government and the
army are actually complicit in the problem, they're corrupt,
they've become part of the problem, rather than trying to solve
it."<END QUOTE>


The last remark about the complicity of government being part of the
problem has been a theme in several of the reports I've written about
farmer versus herder violence. In particular, it's been suggested
that Nigeria's president, Muhammadu Buhari, who is a Fulani and owns
large herds of cattle, has been complicit in some of the herder
attacks on farmers. BBC and BBC

Related Articles:

****
**** Nigeria's amnesty program in Niger Delta under fire
****


Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta has the capacity to produce over two
million barrels of oil per day, but for years militants have attacked
national pipeline installations, causing national production to fall.

The militants use a practice known as "oil bunkering." Thieves cut
into the pipes, attach spigots, and divert some of the oil for their
own uses. The Niger Delta is dotted with illegal refineries that
produce crude gasoline, kerosene and diesel fuel. Much of the
diverted oil spills onto the ground, creating an environmental
nightmare, and the reset is used or sold by the militants.

In 2009, Nigeria implemented an unconditional amnesty for militants,
known as the Presidential Amnesty Program (PAP) or the Niger Delta
Amnesty Program (NDAP). The program provided the militants with an
income of about $180 per month, much more than the average worker in
Nigeria. Approximately 30,000 people in the Niger Delta signed up for
the free monthly income, although only 2,700 weapons were surrendered.

However, the free income program did appear to be cost effective.
Before the amnesty, the militants reduced Nigeria's production
capacity by 900,000 barrels per day. After the amnesty, the loss was
reduced to 200,000 barrels per day.

The amnesty program was supposed to last only five years, but when it
was discontinued in 2015, oil bunkering surged again. It was
estimated that from January to October 2016, the government lost about
$5.8 million in revenue because of the bunkering. So the amnesty
program, and the free monthly payments, have been restored. Today,
Nigeria's crude oil output is about 2.2 million barrels per day.

The amnesty program is seen by many as a waste of government money,
since it gives free money to criminals.

However, Prof. Charles Dokubo, special advisor to president Buhari,
insists that the amnesty program must continue:

<QUOTE>"The alternative will be too ghastly to contemplate. ...

The fact is that to maintain the existing peace in the region is
quite important for our function. If there’s a crisis in the
region, then, basically all we are putting in place will not work.

You have oil revenue increasing and the Federal Government has
some more money to pay into the amnesty program to also empower
our people by training them and giving them the requisite skills
to perform well in an economy that is open.

If that is done, for me, I would have achieved all that I want in
the program."<END QUOTE>


However, violence has once again been increasing in the Niger Delta,
so some further measures will be required. There's already a heavy
Nigerian army presence in the Niger Delta, but the fact that they've
been relatively ineffective leads many to believed that they're
sharing in the actions of the militants. Vanguard (Nigeria) and Punch (Nigeria) and Forbes and AP (20-Jul-2013)


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Nigeria, Zamfara, Mary Harper,
Boko Haram, Niger Delta, Muhammadu Buhari,
Presidential Amnesty Program, PAP,
Niger Delta Amnesty Program, NDAP,
Charles Dokubo

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4-Jun-18 World View -- Violence between herders and farmers surges in Nigeria - by John J. Xenakis - 06-03-2018, 10:43 PM
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