Nigeria is experiencing a major conflict between nomadic herdsmen and indigenous farmers. In 2016, the conflict led to the death of 2,500 people, displaced 62,000 others and led to loss of $13.7 billion in revenue. In January 2018 alone, the conflict claimed the lives of 168 people.

The herdsmen are predominantly Fulanis, a primarily Muslim people scattered throughout many parts of West Africa. The farmers, meanwhile, are mostly Christian. Therefore, when violence erupts between the two groups, with symbolic results like churches being burnt down, it is unsurprising that the dominant narrative in Nigeria and abroad is that this is a conflict motivated by religion and ethnicity.

What’s missing is the environmental perspective. Nigeria spans more than 1,000km from a lush and tropical south to the fringes of the Sahara Desert in the north. And, in Nigeria, the Sahara is moving southward at a rate of 600 metres a year. At the same time, Lake Chad in the country’s far north-east has largely dried up. Fulani herdsmen who once relied on the lake have thus moved further south in search of pasture and water for their livestock. The further south you move, the more the population becomes Christian, hence when resource conflicts emerge they appear religious.

Such conflicts between herdsmen and farmers aren’t entirely new. A drought in the late 60s, for instance, kicked off struggles over land use across the Sahel, and the Fulanis do have a history of strategic annexation of territories. What’s new this time round is that the conflict has taken on an entirely different scale, as a problem once restricted to the north of Nigeria has become a major issue in the country’s south.

This is because environmental devastation has necessitated widespread migration of Fulanis from all over West Africa to the south of Nigeria, which has been unable to prevent nomads from other countries from coming in along its long borders. The influx of new people has disrupted the existing dynamics and relationship between predominantly farming local communities and nomadic herdsmen.

But environmental explanations are largely ignored in favour of talk of ethnic or religious conflict. Such talk quickly becomes highly emotive, preventing a full analysis of all the driving forces behind the conflict. The dominance of the “ethnic war” narrative therefore makes it harder to develop holistic and sustainable solutions and, in a country that is a mix of cultures and religions, puts national unity and peace-building at risk.

Silence from the authorities

The government’s response to all this has been near silence. In the vacuum, political explanations have emerged, often from people with a vested interest. For instance, elites and political leaders from affected regions suspect the president, Muhammadu Buhari, who himself is Fulani, of being complicit in the attacks (though they have stopped short of directly accusing him). There’s no evidence the president has anything to do with the conflict but, in a hierarchical society like Nigeria, the word of elites can be taken as gospel.

The central government has proffered solutions such as cattle “colonies”, which take lands from indigenous farmers and give it to the Fulanis to graze. But among the farmers this only reinforces worries of an ethnic land grab.

The president has often spoken of “recharging” Lake Chad to its former size, perhaps using water diverted from the Ubangi River in the Congo basin, and he recently spoke on the subject at an African Union conference. Yet the lake still is not really built into the government’s strategy for the farmer-herder conflict.

Healthy lake, peaceful people

So what would a sustainable and just solution to the conflict actually involve? Lake Chad certainly will need to be “recharged”, along with a massive programme of tree growing and sustainable water management. This will require the engagement of neighbouring countries – who have serious environmental problems of their own – and the support of international donor agencies, but it would go a long way towards stemming the migration southward and should reduce incidences of conflict.

The government must also recognise, publicly, that this is at root a conflict over resources exacerbated by environmental problems. It must point this out when the need arises, rather than waiting until half-truths dominate public discourse.

The Nigerian media, for its part, often thrives on emotive narratives. But this story of conflict between herders and farmers calls for less sensationalism and more investigative journalism that helps reveal further nuances to the complex issue. This isn’t a simple tale of ethnic conflict – the environment cannot be ignored.

By Dr Olalekan Adetola (Lecturer, York St John University, UK)

Courtesy: The Conversation

Farmers and herdsmen in Adamawa State have agreed to cease hostilities in order to give chance for a Peace and Reconciliation Committee to work out a lasting solution to conflict between them in the state.

The agreement is contained in a statement read by Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State, who presided over a two-day town hall meeting of farmers and herdsmen in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.

Umahi, who is leading the Ad Hoc Team set up by Federal Government to fashion out lasting solution to the crisis nationwide, said the committee would look into how best to transform the existing grazing reserves in the state.

“We noted that we have 31 grazing reserves in the state totalling 105,646 hectares of land of which the state government submitted that some of these gazetted reserves have been encroached upon.

“We recommend that the state and federal governments do group the herdsmen in the state into these gazetted reserves, use the anchor borrower scheme to develop them with modern facilities that will guarantee great yield of the cattle, make water, grass available, schools, a veterinary clinic and milk factory production available.

“We noted that with the increase in cattle, crop production and decrease of land, due to climate changes, there will continue to be conflict unless cattle movement is restricted into grazing reserve and ranching,” Umahi said.

He explained that the peace and reconciliation committee comprised the Deputy Governor of Adamawa, Mr Martins Babale, and representatives of farmers, herdsmen, traditional rulers, religious leaders and security agencies, among others.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge, the world’s longest manmade sea crossing, in respect of which major construction work came to a close on December 31, 2017,  will be opened in the second quarter of 2018.

In recent weeks, engineers and constructors have been testing the coordination of the bridge’s various systems and equipment, as well as inspection and cleaning work.

Also, work on the principal section – a 29.6km bridge-island-tunnel complex – is expected to have been completed in early February, ahead of an official handover ceremony by the contractors.

Although a precise date has not been fixed, the bridge will start services officially around May to June, according to the sources, who added that the final commissioning date would partially depend on the construction progress of port facilities in Zhuhai and Hong Kong.

It took six years preparation, and eight years to build the 55 kilometre-long bridge linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao.

Major work on the bridge consisted of a 22.9 kilometre-long main bridge, a 6.7 kilometre-long tunnel and an artificial island off the bridge, which is considered the most technically demanding part of the whole construction.

The Y-shaped bridge will cut travel time between Hong Kong and Zhuhai from three hours to just 30 minutes, further integrating cities in the Pearl River Delta. With expanding capacities of roads, railways and ports, the Greater Bay Area will see a highly convenient and efficient transportation network.

Except for the principal section, the bridge also consists of ports and link roads in Zhuhai and the Macau and Hong Kong SARs. These works are conducted by the respective governments.

The 55km bridge, 20 times the length of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, connects Hong Kong in the east of the Pearl River Estuary with Macau and Zhuhai in the west.

Construction of the bridge began in 2009.