[ad_1]
The Fulani of the Ibarapa community in Oyo State, southwestern Nigeria, are mostly migrants from the north of the country. A small number come from neighboring Chad, Niger, Benin and Cameroon. These settlers mostly live in settlements, far from host communities.
The emergence of the Peuls in Ibarapa dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. For the most part, men keep cattle while women produce and sell dairy products. Both men and women are involved in agriculture as well as other entrepreneurial activities. Some are involved in a combination of two or more economic activities.
The Fulani clans of Ibarapa include the Barugu’en and the Bororo’en. Although they both speak the Fulani language, Fulfulde, there are some dialect differences.
We conducted a study on the access of these Fulani to basic social facilities such as water and health establishments.
We collected data through observation as well as through interviews. Between January and March 2018, we interviewed 22 people from 12 different Fulani settlements and three Yoruba communities.
We found that Fulani settlers were disadvantaged in their access to basic social amenities such as clean water, health facilities, electricity, and schools. Research has established that this necessary equipment is grossly inadequate in both urban and rural areas of Nigeria. But our results show that the Fulani settlers of Ibarapa are particularly badly off. There is no infrastructure available in most of their settlements.
Although the Fulani settlers have been in Ibarapa for decades, their migrant status and the strained relations between them and their host communities contributed to their disadvantaged access to the infrastructure at the study site. It also has its place in understanding the latest face-to-face between communities in southwestern Nigeria and Fulani settlers.
The alienated Fulani in Ibarapa
Our research was carried out in 12 of the over 100 different Fulani settlements in Ibarapa. Each establishment is made up of an extended family of 20 people on average, related by blood or marriage.
The settlements are remote and road links with the nearest host communities are in poor condition.
Over time, there has been an erosion of goodwill between host communities and Fulani in Ibarapa due to relentless clashes between pastoralists and farmers. These mainly result from the encroachment of livestock on agricultural land. The destruction of agricultural products by cows usually results in a loss of livelihood for the farmers who have invested time, money and effort.
As a result, a good number of farmers have stopped farming. It has also affected the availability and price of agricultural products in the region.
We spoke with Yoruba farmers from the host communities who shared their stories with us. These included accounts of deliberate and willful destruction of farmland, breaking demarcation hedges, raping women, arson by burning barns and warehouses and the use of firearms by pastoralists. . Some claimed that their people were kidnapped at gunpoint and in some extreme cases people were killed on farms.
Their stories provided insight into the factors behind the endemic violence in the region.
In retaliation for cattle encroachment, some farmers said they sprayed farmland with poison, resulting in the death of cows. Due to the high value placed on livestock, farmers’ actions sometimes trigger retaliation from pastoralists.
Read more: What sparked a new conflict between farmers and herders in Nigeria
The Fulani have also been accused of rape, kidnappings, armed robberies and killings in the region. In support of the charge of theft, a leader of the Yoruba community mentioned how, a few years ago, the son of a popular Fulani leader of Igboora, a town in the Ibarapa region, had been arrested for criminal activity by the police.
Without absolving the Fulani of the charges against them, some members of the Fulani community argued that not all Fulani were criminals. In addition, they complained that they were also victims of encroachments on farms and other criminal activities perpetrated mainly by the Bororo (a clan of the Fulani).
A Fulani school principal interviewed said:
The Bororo Fulani are considered to be violent, harsh and often the perpetrators of the various acts of violence attributed to the Fulani. They usually do not stay in one place and therefore cannot be held responsible. Even if you catch them, some of us Fulani are afraid to face them.
A Fulani opinion leader recounted how he escaped death at the hands of Bororo shepherds while working on his farm. He had resisted attempts by shepherds and their cattle to encroach upon his farmland. In retaliation, the shepherds attempted to mutilate him with a cutlass, despite being a Fulani.
Opinion leaders and other Fulani interviewed agreed that most of the perpetrators were Fulani who entered Nigeria from Chad, Niger, Cameroon and the Republic of Benin, across porous borders.
Speaking about cattle encroachment, a thought leader who is a Yoruba traditional healer argued that the Fulani sometimes escape their crimes because some locals have enlisted the services of the Fulani to raise their cows.
He added that the traditional mode of settling disputes between Fulani and host communities, in which owners of cattle who destroy farmland and crops are mandated to compensate injured farmers, which had been effective in the past, n was more popular. On the contrary, the Fulani now preferred to surrender to the police. But the police have been accused of taking sides with the Fulani.
This further eroded the relationship between host communities and settlers.
The incessant clashes between farmers and herders in Nigeria are old and steeped in history. Although these problems present a major insecurity arc, new challenges have contributed to the latest violence. One of them is that the pastures available to Fulani pastoralists are shrinking due to climate change brought about by climate change.
Read more: Conflict between herders and farmers: Nigeria must accept that there are victims on both sides
Next steps
The government will have to find viable and clearly defined solutions. To begin with, imbalances in the provision of facilities need to be addressed, especially with a view to bridging the gaps between settler communities and others.
The creation of places – to settle and build houses in places different from your place of origin – is the right of every citizen. People who have done so should not be discriminated against, regardless of where they are domiciled in the country.
In addition, the government will need to tackle the problem of porous borders in order to control the inexorable flow of illegal migrants into the country. This is necessary because there are indications that some of the pastoralists who commit crimes are not from the stock of Fulani settlers who have lived in different host communities for decades.
The authors do not work, consult, own stock, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have not disclosed any relevant affiliation beyond their academic appointment.
By Janet Ogundairo, Researcher and PhD Student, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ibadan and
Feyisitan Ijimakinwa, researcher, French Institute for Research in Africa, University of Ibadan
Source link
