Financial Implications Of Farmers And Herders Conflict In Nigeria

Abstract

Situations involving farmers and herders are common, and these conflicts have posed severe dangers to farmers' and herders' ability to survive and earn a living. These situations are linked to the conflict theory which views social and economic institutions as a tool of the struggle between groups or classes, used to maintain inequality and the dominance of the ruling class. Interrogating the conflict theory, this study uses model variables and proxies to evaluate the financial implications for farmers and herders in Nigeria. The study adopted the ex-post facto research design, to shed light on the financial implication of the herders-farmers conflict in Nigeria. The study relied on data accessed from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) and the agricultural sector contribution to real GDP data extracted from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin 2019. The study clearly shows no significant difference in the herders-farmers conflict occurrences from 1st quarter of 2010 to the last quarter of 2019. This is quite surprising as the a priori expectation and prior studies are unanimous that the confrontation between herders and farmers has adverse financial implications. However, the study also corroborates the assertion that there is a significant relationship between the fatalities from herders-farmers conflicts and the agricultural sector's contribution to real gross domestic product in Nigeria.The study recommends that the government, via the security agencies and judiciary, ensure that culprits of the herders-farmers conflicts are lawfully dealt with.