EARLY WARNING SYSTEM AND TRANSHUMANCE CONFLICTS IN SOUTHEAST NIGERIA

A STUDY IN CONFLICT PREVENTION.

Abstract

The spate of transhumance conflicts in the Southeast of Nigeria in spite of all strategies of governments to curb it has become highly perturbing. It's coarsely disturbing hence the attendant consequences of the conflict distorts the peaceful coexistence of the herders and the sedentary famers. This paper examines the circumstances associated with the conflict. The study is hinged on two anchor questions: What is the proximate cause of transhumance conflicts in the Southeast of Nigeria? What strategic mechanism can be applied to prevent the conflicts and sustain peace in the Southeast? The study adopted social psychology theory of the displaced aggression. Data for the study were generated through quantitative methods and analyzed using the sequential analytical techniques. The findings revealed that the proximate factors responsible for transhumance conflicts are many and varied. They include the influx of foreign herders, their emerging aggressive tendencies, infiltration of the original early herder settlers, access to sophisticated assault weapons, insufficient land surface area for settlement and farming, language barrier, quest to evade cattle tax – jangali, and the delay in implementation of modern livestock rearing. The paper concludes that there is urgent need to address transhumance operation and scarcity of land surface areas so as to accommodate the multitude of cattle and humans, particularly sedentary farmers in the local communities. The paper recommends Early Warning System to check trespass and aggression as well as tacit efforts to review cattle tax. In addition, there is also need to save the live stocks, human lives and food output by relocating the transhumance activities to areas with vast land.