A team of five empirical researchers from four leading universities in Nigeria and the Republic of Benin have said that ethnic relations and inter-ethnic marriage will, among other factors, help to reduce recurring herders-farmers tensions in Nigeria.
The team of researchers presented report of a study, titled, Inter-group Relations and Peace building among Farmers and Pastoralists in Rural Grazing Areas of Nigeria on Wednesday in the University of Ilorin and witnessed by academics, students among other stakeholders.
Speaking at the National Research Fund (NRF)/Tetfund 2020 dissemination workshop on the topic, the team said that the study attempted to establish empirically the influence of inter-group relations on peace-building in
rural grazing areas (RUGA) in Nigeria.
The researchers included the Principal Investigator, Professor Abdulateef Muhammed of the Department of Sociology University of llorin, Dr. Waziri Adisa, Associate Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lagos, Professor Johnson Oluwole Ayodele of the Littoral University, Porto Novo, Republic of Benin, Mr. Olawale James Gbadeyan of the Department of Peace and Confict Studies, Federal University Oye Ekiti, Ekiti state and Miss Garba Esther Uje of the Department of Sociology, University of Lagos.
According to Professor Mohammed, the research team’s principal investigator, those who engage in inter-ethic marriages have relative peace.
“From our observations, we observed that those who engaged in inter-ethic marriages have relative peace. That’s why we’re encouraging the government to enlighten members of the rural grazing areas to engage more in inter-ethnic marriages. It will mitigate the farmers-herders crisis.
The crisis is hydra-headed now and one of the factors that can mitigate it is inter-ethnic marriages. It will entrench peace, harmony, and holistic understanding in the inter-group relationship.
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He said that the research was carried out in two states each out of the six geopolitical zones of the country, namely, Kaduna, Sokoto Rivers, Enugu, Adamawa, Kogi, Oyo,
He also encouraged political leaders in the country to focus more on findings of researches like this, saying that, “It will go a long way to mitigate the menace of herders-farmers conflicts in Nigeria if the government work on and key into the findings and make sure that the findings are well implemented”.
Some other recommendations of the research include resuscitation and strengthening of nomadic education and adult literacy as well ad strengthening of security of lives and property, especially, in the rural
grazing areas in Nigeria by government at all levels.
“There should be more rigorous efforts to reinvent and entrench nomadic education as it will go a long way to shed light on issue of peace and value of life in rural grazing areas”, he said.
Also, recommendations were made on timely release of funds from National Research Fund (NRF)/TETFund to assuage the problem of inflation and that the telecom service providers should host more masts in the rural grazing areas to ensure effective network service.
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