Understanding the challenges of pastoralism, insurgency and national security

The conference, organised by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), is themed: The Role of Pastoralists in Preventing Insurgency and Conflicts for Enhanced National Security. Between June 23 and 24, 2014, the conference, expected to be declared open by President Goodluck Jonathan, will gather stakeholders together in Kaduna to underline identified challenges facing […]

The conference, organised by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), is themed: The Role of Pastoralists in Preventing Insurgency and Conflicts for Enhanced National Security. Between June 23 and 24, 2014, the conference, expected to be declared open by President Goodluck Jonathan, will gather stakeholders together in Kaduna to underline identified challenges facing pastoralists and other stakeholders, as well as their consequences on national security. It would also provide a medium to achieving synergy among all pastoralists, other stakeholders and security agencies in tackling the menace of terrorism, insurgency, cattle rustling, communal crisis and other threats to national security.       
The importance of farming to economic growth and development, as well as food security and peace in many African countries cannot be overemphasised. For one, rural farmers, who include crop and livestock farmers, are responsible for more than 90 per cent of Africa’s agricultural production. In many countries in western, central and east Africa, small scale crop farmers and livestock rearers are the livewire of the food required to feed the larger city populations. The World Bank estimates that agriculture employs 65 per cent of Africa’s labour force and accounts for 32 per cent of Africa’s total gross domestic product (GDP). What’s more, agriculture is responsible for 60 per cent of the continent’s total export earnings.
Recent awareness and reawakening campaigns have led to a significant growth in the agricultural sector in Africa, especially here in Nigeria, where the sector has witnessed unprecedented reforms leading to increased yields. However, the World Bank warns that, among other factors, insecurity and insurgency are threatening the sustainability of Africa’s food production. At the heart of this challenge is the perennial crisis relating to conflicts between transhumant pastoralists and crop farmers in many parts of Africa. Thibaud Lesueur, Crisis Group’s Central Africa analyst, recently warned that, “Conflicts linked to pastoralist movements take place in rural areas. Despite a growing death toll, they are invincible and neglected by the governments.”  This assertion was re-echoed in a recent report on pastoralism titled, Central Africa: The Security Challenged of Pastoralism. In the report, the International Crisis Group decried what it called the “under-reported human security problem” which, of course, is violent conflicts related to the expansion of pastoralism southward from the Sahel region. “This dynamic,” the report said, “is problematic because pastoral ecosystems transcend borders and transhumance creates new settlement fronts and sources of friction.”
Without doubt, pastoralism is a big business in Africa. Many rural dwellers depend on it for survival, while it serves as a veritable source of nutrient for the rest of the populace. Its contribution to national economy and wealth creation cannot be ignored.  However, transhumance creates a kind of interdependence and competition between herdsmen and crop farmers. Key to this strife is the battle to secure vital resources such as water and pasture for forage/farming. To this end, transhumance is a major source of friction all over Africa where crop and livestock farming coexist.  
In Nigeria, for instance, there have been cases of bloody conflicts between Fulani cattle rearers and local farmers. Such cases have been reported in Borno, Plateau, Benue, Adamawa, Kogi, Kwara, Cross River and Ogun, to mention but a few. Most recently, the crisis has taken a different and more dangerous dimension in Nasarawa State, where the battle for resources has taken the shape of conquest. These conflicts persist because in most cases, responses to previous conflicts were lopsided and unreasonable.  For example, in May 2009, several local authorities in Borno expelled 700 pastoralists from the state, while in Plateau, 2000 herdsmen were expelled from the state by the local authorities there. Of course, such measures are without recourse to establishing and addressing the reasons behind transhumance in the first place.  
Climate change is one of the several intertwined causes of transhumant movements by pastoralists. As grazing regions become hotter and drier, pastoralists are left with no option other than to migrate southward if their cattle would have any chance of survival. However, there are other related causes of herdsmen-crop farmers’ conflicts: urbanisation has opened up more villages and towns, making it easier for pastoralists to penetrate hitherto remote areas; the present security challenges being experienced in parts of the country have prompted pastoralists, like any other Nigerians, to migrate from crisis-prone areas; and cultivated areas and cattle herds have witnessed significant expansion and increase respectively, making resources scarcer and more competitive.
In addition, there is an international dimension to this conflict. There is trans-border pastoralism, a situation whereby herdsmen graze their cattle into a neighboring country; thereby increasing the chances of insurgency and insecurity in the area. The aforementioned makes it crucial for any public policy or programme geared towards pastoralism to adequately include bilateral and multilateral frameworks.
We cannot afford to ignore incessant violence related to pastoralism because it poses a threat to national security. The dimension these conflicts are assuming lately suggests deep-rooted issues degenerating into blooding conflicts and targeted killings. This fact was corroborated recently by Mohammed Bello, Secretary-General of the Confederation of Traditional Herder Organisations in Africa (CORET), who said, “The recent conflict had assumed a dangerous dimension with the infusion of ethnic, religious and political factors into it. Cattle rustling, availability of dangerous weapons, intra-pastoralist conflicts, mercenary elements and dangerous drugs had all added to the combustion.”   
 Stakeholders unanimously agree that to make pastoralists peace agents, their activities have to be regulated. To Thierry Vircoulon, Central African Project Director of International Crisis Group, this regulation “cannot be imposed: it must be negotiated between state and non-state actors and must foster economic interdependence between pastoralists and crop farmers”. It is hoped that at the end of the conference in Kaduna, decision makers would be able to fashion out a permanent solution to one of the most perennial and lethal security challenges across Africa.      
   Arilesere wrote from Abuja