Assessment of government’s intervention policies and its impact on the herder–farmer coexistence in North Central Nigeria

Abstract

AbstractThis research work examines the government intervention policies and how helpful they have been in achieving herder–farmer peaceful coexistence in the North Central part of Nigeria, with a focus on Kogi and Benue States. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a descriptive design with a sample size of 759 respondents, and both univariate analyses, i.e. descriptive statistics, such as frequency distribution in percentage and bivariate Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and regression analysis, were adopted. The results show that the various intervention programmes or policies have not been helpful in improving the coexistence of the herders and farmers in the North Central region and Nigeria at a large scale as perceived by the respondents. The findings of the study show that people perceived the government intervention programme in their locality as not helpful in achieving the goal of herder–farmer peaceful coexistence. The findings also show that the policies of the government have not addressed the root cause of the conflict, making it difficult to have an expected effect on the two conflicting parties. Therefore, the study recommends implementing proper and prompt monitoring and evaluation of policies to determine their impact on the targeted population while conducting more orientation programmes about the intention of the government intervention programmes and policies, with particular emphasis on reaching out to the rural communities and not just focusing on the activities in the media only.

Keywords

• coexistence
• conflict
• farmers
• herders
• intervention programmes or policies
• North Central