Herders’ violence: Enough excuses, implement ranching

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ANOTHER authoritative report has confirmed what Nigerians have known for years but what successive governments have stubbornly refused to confront: open grazing has become one of the country’s gravest security and economic disasters.

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The new report, “Insecurity, Livelihoods and Welfare in Northern Nigeria”, concludes that herders’ violence against farmers, banditry and insurgency are driving millions deeper into poverty and undermining the country’s food security.

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This should alarm every policymaker. Northern Nigeria is the country’s food basket. When farmers abandon their lands because of violence, every Nigerian pays the price through soaring food inflation, shrinking agricultural production and worsening hunger.

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The report, jointly produced by the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network of the Institute of Development Studies, United Kingdom; the Development Research and Projects Centre; and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office-supported Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria project, leaves little room for doubt.

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CPAN Deputy Director, Vidya Diwakar, said the study relied on the Nigeria Living Standards Survey 2022/23, the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2024, Armed Conflict Location and Event Data covering 2010 to 2025, and extensive fieldwork to examine how insecurity has devastated household welfare.

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“Households in the North-East affected by Boko Haram and ISWAP attacks recorded between eight and 14 per cent lower expenditure per adult equivalent when violent incidents occurred within two years before the survey,” the report stated.

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“Farmer-herder clashes had the most severe impact on near-poor households in the North-Central zone, resulting in a 14 per cent drop in expenditure at the 60th percentile, the largest single welfare effect recorded in the study.”

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It further states: “In the North-West, banditry and kidnapping were linked to expenditure losses ranging from four to 11 per cent, particularly among moderately poor households.”

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It recommends livelihood diversification, arguing that combining farming, non-farming and enterprise-based income-generating activities is “the single most consistent protective factor across all three conflict types.” It also stresses peacebuilding as the foundation for rebuilding livelihoods.

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Those recommendations are sensible, but they do not tackle the root cause of one of Nigeria’s bloodiest conflicts.

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The country cannot diversify livelihoods while villages are being overrun by armed herders. It cannot build peace while allowing a primitive livestock production system that breeds violence to flourish.

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Without replacing open grazing with modern ranching, every intervention amounts to treating the symptoms while ignoring the disease.

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Open grazing has become synonymous with death, displacement, destruction and economic ruin. It has fuelled violent clashes, emptied farming communities, devastated agricultural production and created fertile ground for bandits, kidnappers and terrorists.

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The PUNCH has repeatedly argued that many terrorist attacks have their roots in herder violence, aided by cross-border alliances with armed groups from the Sahel that exploit the open grazing system and Nigeria’s porous borders to infiltrate communities.

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Open grazing has also provided cover for criminal gangs operating from forests across the country.

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It is no longer merely a livestock management issue. It has become a national security emergency.

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The solution is obvious.

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Ranching confines livestock to managed facilities, drastically reduces conflict, improves cattle productivity, protects farmlands and enables displaced farmers to return safely to their communities.

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The International Crisis Group observed: “Rising conflict between herders and farmers in Nigeria is already six times deadlier in 2018 than Boko Haram’s insurgency” and “has become Nigeria’s gravest security challenge.” Sadly, that verdict remains true today.

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The report, “Working Document – Fulani Militia’s Terror: Compilation of News (2017–2020),” states that “Fulani herdsmen engaged in 654 attacks, killed 2,539 and kidnapped 253 people in Nigeria between 2017 and May 2, 2020.”

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Nigeria’s worsening security profile is reflected in its ranking as the sixth most terrorism-affected country in the 2025 Global Terrorism Index, up from eighth previously.

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Nowhere illustrates this tragedy more vividly than Plateau and Benue states.

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Human Rights Watch says violence in Plateau State has claimed more than 7,000 lives and displaced up to 220,000 people since 2001.

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During the 2023 Christmas season alone, Fulani attacks reportedly killed 140 people in 62 Plateau communities.

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Amnesty International reported in 2025 that more than 200 villages in Benue State were attacked and sacked by gunmen, while at least 450,000 residents were displaced.

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Yet, despite this horrifying record, governments continue to promote failed policies such as RUGA, grazing reserves and grazing colonies instead of embracing the globally accepted ranching model. This defies logic.

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Virtually every country with a successful livestock industry has abandoned unrestricted grazing.

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Uruguay operates technology-driven ranches with computerised cattle traceability, and livestock exports account for about one-quarter of its export earnings.

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With only about 3.7 million cattle, about one-sixth of Nigeria’s herd, the Netherlands produces 14.7 billion litres of milk annually. Nigeria’s open grazing system produces a paltry 527 million litres.

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While Nigeria spends about $560 million every year importing milk, the Dutch dairy industry earns approximately $10 billion annually.

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The contrast is not merely embarrassing. It is an indictment of decades of policy failure.

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According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Brazil, the United States, Australia and India together account for 73 per cent of the world’s cattle population. Alongside Argentina and New Zealand, they have built prosperous livestock industries on commercial ranching, not open grazing.

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Nigeria, by contrast, has about 20.9 million cattle, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Yet they are poorly managed, produce little milk, generate low economic value and remain at the centre of recurring bloodshed.

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The Federal Government can no longer evade responsibility.

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State governments must also stop treating anti-open grazing laws as political slogans. The Land Use Act places land under the control of governors. They should use those powers decisively by banning open grazing and enforcing the law without fear or favour.

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Governments should simultaneously support herders to establish ranches through financing, technical assistance and modern livestock infrastructure. They must also confront the powerful political, military and business interests that profit from the exploitative zero-cost open grazing system while ordinary Nigerians bear its terrible human and economic costs.

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Nigeria cannot continue to tolerate a system that kills thousands, displaces farming communities, fuels food inflation and impoverishes millions.

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The choice is no longer between ranching and open grazing. It is between modernity and backwardness; between security and endless bloodshed; between prosperity and perpetual poverty.

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Enough studies have been conducted. Enough lives have been lost. Enough communities have been destroyed.

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The time for endless committees and cosmetic reforms has passed.

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The Federal Government and the states must summon the political courage to end open grazing permanently and implement ranching nationwide. Anything less amounts to abandoning Nigerians to another cycle of avoidable violence, economic decline and national shame.

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