Introduction
The conflict between herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria is surely not a new thing but the dimension the unfriendly relationship has recently taken place in Numan Local Government Area calls for concern.
The conflict in Numan Local Government Area, which resulted into, loses of hundreds of lives and property is an incidence that can be said to be as bad as Boko Haram insurgency in Adamawa State. The possibility of such incidence happening in other part of the State is highly likely because of the uncordial farmer/herder relationship similar to what it was in Numan LGA.
To avert the repeat of this incidence, Murmushi People’s Development Foundation have decided to facilitate dialogue between herdsmen and farmers in all potential conflict areas were disputes is identified to be at its formative stage.
We have therefore decided to start the facilitation in Bole community which comprises of Bole 1, Bole 2 and Bole 3 were last harvest, incidences of herdsmen allowing their animals into farms was done with impunity. Farmers in those communities are still contemplating not to farm next year, if something drastic is not done to stop the menace.
The dialogue will be facilitated in such a way that the herdsmen and farmers will be brought together and guided to proffer solutions to the problems.
OBJECTIVES
- To reconcile herdsmen and farmers in Bole community.
- To disabuse the minds of farmers and herdsmen from interpreting the disputes along tribal line.
- To set up mechanism that will checkmate future occurrences.
IMPACT OF BOLE DIALOGUE 3 YEARS AFTER
Its over 3 years now since Murmushi People’s Development Foundation (MPDF) facilitated peace dialogue between farmers and herders of Bole Community, in Yola South Local Government Area of Adamawa State, in Nigeria.
The intervention started in September 2018 when the relationship between the 2 groups become tensed with an average of 3 attack on the farmers daily, some resulting into deaths. Such had been the situation for the past 5 harvest seasons.
The situation in 2018 was about to escalate as a result of the farmer /herder war that took place in Numan area, less than 100 km away from Bole which resulted in hundreds of people being killed.
The fear of escalation also increased as a result of some of the people displaced from Numan area came to settle in Bole area. The tension was so high that one mid night people from Bole started running into Yola town which is less than 3 km from Bole. This got Murmushi to develop a concept note for the intervention which British Council approved to finance.
ACTIVITIES
Activities of the intervention started with advocacy visits to the District Head of Yola, the village of Bole, Yola South Council Chairman, and the Officer in Charge of Shagari police post for their buy – in and support.
We then mapped out the leadership of the 2 group and sensitized them on the intervention Separately. We also through the leaders mapped out 30 members from each group for separate meetings to seek for their consent to mediate between them, get them to list out their grievances and prepare their minds for a peaceful dialogue session.
Murmushi invited Danish Refugee Council (DRC) to witness the dialogue to be facilitated by our Executive Director, Babagari Baraya who was trained on mediation and dialogue facilitation by the DRC.
The grievances of the 2 groups were humanized and the facilitator guided them to suggest and agree on solutions to the listed issues. At the end of the dialogue session, the 2 groups were asked to come together as members of Bole Community to elect 18 of them comprising of 9 farmers and 9 herders, 3 of them each from the 3 villages that form the Bole Community to be membes of Mediation Committee of the community. To bring the membership to 20, the village head become the chairman of the committee while his secretary was made the secretary of the committee. Danish Refugee Council in their support to the project, accepted to train the 20-man Mediation Committee on mediation and dialogue facilitation.
These trained mediation committee members immediately started enforcing the agreed terms within days. The farmers who hitherto were afraid to go to their farms, afforded to harvest and leave the produce in their farms for days before transporting it back home.
The mediation didn’t stop at farmer/herder issues only, but mediated on 5 cases withdrawn from the courts before the end of 2018.
A grand ceremony was organized for the signing of the agreement by the herders and farmers before the entire members of Bole community and their neighbors.
