Expert Identifies Reason For Herdsmen, Farmers Conflict

The country director, Conflict management for Mercy Corps Nigeria, Miss Iveta Ouvry has attributed the incessant conflicts between herdsmen and farmers in some parts of the country to lack of arable and due to climate and the non implementation of grazing laws.
Ouvry said that the group has its network in four states of the country; namely: Benue, Nasarawa, Kaduna and plateau states, adding that some communities and their members in these states have been engaged in peace building process.
There are so many reasons that are responsible for the increase of conflict between herdsmen and farmers’, starting with the climate change which is a global problem”, she said.
She explained that the lack of implementation of laws which already exist also constituted a factor, adding that there are a lot to be done by different stakeholders, including the local governments.
According to her, the federal government, in addition to enhancing the current laws, must work to ensure that other things that needed be addressed.
She said that the four year programme, had succeeded in bringing a level peace to some communities in states of the middle belt, from 2012 to 2016.
Ouvry explained that though it took us long to achieve our goal and we are happy to say conflict has decreased in the communities we worked in.
“The most important thing that we were able to achieve was to encourage people to set up system that helps them to manage conflict peacefully and this system would stay beyond us”, she added.
Ouvry also urged stakeholders, local government and the federal government to ensure that current laws are in place to support the process.
We know that the minister of culture works a lot on establishing new system of working on laws around ranching and grazing, “she added.