Dr Onyekachi Nnabuihe

The West African sub-region has been characterised by internal migrations and conflicts resulting from harsher weather and desertification. This has stimulated some state interventions to curb the challenges and has raised significant questions about food insecurity in Nigeria, where a substantial percentage of its 206 million inhabitants still rely directly on the land for their livelihoods. The interventions have deepened land administration politics because the amount of usable land is decreasing while there is a significant increase in the number of people living on the ground.

In Nigeria, climate change is disrupting lives. It has generated land struggles at different levels, leading to migration and conflicts as the country’s indigenous populations battle food insecurity. A perfect example is the clash of interests between herders and farmers, and the resultant battles for arable land versus grazing land. This sustains cycles of conflict, complicates peace processes and increases environmental challenges that gravely affect human well-being. Resistance has grown against state-led initiatives for reform because of perceptions that they could be opportunities for ethnic and political elitist land grabbing.

There is an urgent need for further empirical analysis to identify and test the mechanisms that link the variables and draw a more robust conclusion on the drivers of the farmer-herder conflict, and the barriers to peacebuilding in climate change-induced conflicts. These conflicts have made several groups vulnerable because of their dependence on natural resources, endangering ways of life, leading to a surge in violence and destabilising human security.

Dr Onyekachi Nnabuihe’s research offers the prospect of finding sustainable, human-centred solutions to climate change-induced conflicts and food scarcity. The relationships between climate change, violent conflicts, and the mistrust and resistance of state-led interventions in the North-Central and South-West zones and the state will be explored at length. The project will interrogate how climate change has induced conflicts in Nigeria and how government interventions to address the disputes have further deepened land politics and worsened conflict and food security. Importantly, it will look at government conflict management approaches that might be providing an impetus for elite land grabbing.

Data will be drawn from the Plateau and Benue States in the North-Central zone, the Ondo and Oyo states in the South-West zone and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. These states comprise the epicentre of the farmer-herder conflict and other issues. Information will be generated from interviews, focus group discussions, the archives in Kaduna and Ibadan, and secondary sources that focus on land tenure systems, land administrations and food security in Nigeria. The focus group discussions will focus on farmers, farmers’ associations, herders’ associations, government officials charged with the responsibility of climate change governance and security officers focusing on the study’s objectives.

The research should provide policy suggestions that will foster lasting solutions to the negative interaction between climate change governance, land politics, conflicts and food security in Nigeria and Africa.