Barau urges ECOWAS to learn from Nigerian herder-farmer conflict as over 3 million remain displaced – THISAGE

The Vice President of the Nigerian Senate and First Vice President of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Senator Barau Jibrin, has urged the regional body to learn from Nigeria’s experience with farmer-herder conflicts and the humanitarian crisis they have generated.

Barau made the warning as the ECOWAS Parliament continued its second special session and workshop in Accra, Ghana, where lawmakers are examining regional challenges, including internal displacement, conflict and humanitarian crises.

In a presentation titled “Strategies for Addressing Internal Displacement and Farmer-Herder Conflict in Nigeria,” presented on his behalf by Senator Sadiq Umar, Barau said Nigeria’s experience offered important lessons for West Africa and the African continent at large.

He said persistent conflicts have demonstrated the dangers of allowing pressure on natural resources, particularly land and water, to fester without effective conflict prevention and management mechanisms.

According to him, Nigeria is blessed with extensive agricultural and pastoral economies, with much of its population dependent on agriculture and livestock production for survival.

However, increasing pressure on land and water resources has contributed to conflicts that, in some areas, have been intertwined with banditry, terrorism and other forms of insecurity.

The consequences, he said, went beyond loss of life and destruction of property, to include mass displacement, disruption of livelihoods and exacerbation of humanitarian needs.

Barau expressed concern that despite numerous interventions, the problem continued to hamper efforts to resolve it, leaving more than three million Nigerians displaced.

According to him, the scale of internal displacement shows that the crisis cannot be addressed with emergency aid alone.

The legislator highlighted the need for a coordinated approach at the national and regional levels that addresses the causes of displacement while creating the conditions for affected communities to return home safely or rebuild their lives elsewhere.

He said internal displacement should not be considered the sole responsibility of humanitarian agencies, arguing that this requires the involvement of relevant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), as well as traditional institutions and other stakeholders.

“Nigeria’s approach is increasingly consistent with the international shift from short-term humanitarian response towards government-led, development-oriented solutions,” he said.

Barau noted that Nigeria was among the countries selected under the United Nations Secretary-General’s Program of Action on Internal Displacement and Targeted National Pathways to Durable Solutions.

He also highlighted Nigeria’s commitment to the African Union Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, commonly known as the Kampala Convention, as part of efforts to strengthen the protection of internally displaced persons.

The senator said governments across the region must strengthen early warning systems and conflict prevention mechanisms instead of waiting for disputes to escalate into violence before taking action.

It also identified climate adaptation as an important component of conflict prevention, particularly because changing environmental conditions can intensify competition for land, water and grazing resources.

Barau said governments must anticipate emerging pressures and put mechanisms in place to prevent disputes between agricultural and pastoral communities from escalating into violent clashes.

He argued that effective prevention would be less costly, both economically and humanely, than responding to full-blown conflicts and their consequences.

The senator also called for a fundamental rethink of the treatment of livestock production in Nigeria and across the region. According to him, livestock farming should not be viewed only through the prism of safety, but as an important economic sector that requires investment and proper regulation.

“Livestock should be treated not simply as a safety issue but as an important economic sector,” he noted.

Barau supported investments in animal husbandry, food and farming, saying such measures could reduce pressures associated with uncontrolled livestock movement and competition over agricultural land and water resources.

He further stressed that effective policy implementation is crucial to ensure that farmers and herders can pursue legal and productive livelihoods without unnecessary conflict.

The senator said Nigeria’s experience has shown that farmer-herder conflicts and internal displacement are complex challenges that cannot be resolved with a single intervention.

He said the issues cover security, agriculture, climate change, land management, livestock production, humanitarian response and economic development.

For ECOWAS, he said, the lesson was the need to act before similar challenges took root in other Member States.

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