COMMUNITY POLICING: THE NEED FOR CONTAINMENT OF HERDERS-FARMERS CONFLICTS IN NIGERIAN STATES
Keywords:
Security structure, occupational conflict, micro police, sustainable ranching, environment challengeAbstract
With the proliferation of state security agencies charged with specialized roles in the maintenance of law and order, the partial passage of Anti-Open Gracing laws by some states in Nigeria, herders-farmers conflicts have remained interactable. This study examined the need for establishment of community policing as an alternative measure to containing herders-farmers conflicts in Nigeria. Based on the content analysis of data gathered through secondary sources, anchored on eco-violence and superior aggression theories as framework of analysis, this work argues that given the structural arrangement and the command of the Nigeria Police that skewed the control of the Police in charge of internal security, law and order to the directive of the canter, the nonchalant attitude of the Federal Government shows the unwillingness to formalize the informal security apparatus to contain the incessant conflicts that may have persisted. The study concluded that, with the prevailing structure of Nigeria’s federalism and the posture of its present leadership; herders-farmers conflicts would remain intractable and a recurring experience. Therefore, it recommends amongst other measures, the need for repositioning of the apparatus of community policing to systematically cut across villages, clans and hamlets, as an imperative needed change to contain the menace of herdsmen banditry terror acts.
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