ANNUAL REPORT SUMMARY:

SEPTEMBER 1, 2018 – AUGUST 31, 2019

Transforming Farmer-Herder Conflicts and Promoting Freedom of

Religions and Belief in Nigeria’s Middle Belt Contract Number: 6002993

Scope of Work Search for Common Ground (Search) began implementing the 24-month project entitled “Transforming

Farmer-Herder Conflicts and Promoting Freedom of Religions and Belief in Nigeria’s Middle Belt” on

September 1, 2018, with support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The project was

designed to address the escalation in the violence and the loss of human lives and property as a result of

farmers-herders conflicts in Plateau, Nasarawa and Benue states. In the start-up phase of the project, eight

flashpoint or high-risk Local Government Areas (LGAs) were identified to target in these three states,

namely Guma and Otukpo in Benue state, Doma and Keana in Nasarawa state, and Barkin Ladi, Riyom,

Jos North and Jos South in Plateau state.

The overall goal of the project is to contribute to preventing violence and the destruction of lives and

properties resulting from protracted violent conflicts between farmers and herders while combating

impunity and promoting the freedom of religions and belief in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria. The

overall goal is supported by three specific objectives and three expected results, which guide the project’s

activities:

● Objective 1: To increase collaboration between farmer and herder communities to develop

joint, effective, sustainable local mechanisms for early warning response, dispute

management, and violence prevention and mitigation at the community level.

o Expected Result 1.1: Farmer and herder communities expand ownership over a sustained

and scaled peace and community security architecture and early warning system that

includes law enforcement, government, civil society actors, traditional and religious

leaders for prevention of violence and address the causes, drivers, and consequences of

farmer-herder conflicts.

o Expected Result 1.2: Farmer and herder communities improved engagement and

collaboration with policymakers state and federal level on effective response to prevent

violence, promote freedom of religion and belief, enhance the rule of law, and address the

causes, drivers, and consequences of violent farmer-herder conflicts.

● Objective 2: To mobilize religious leaders and policymakers to jointly counter violent rhetoric

through positive public messages of religious pluralism and respect of human rights.

o Expected Result 2.1: Civil society actors and community actors engage government actors

to address impunity and strengthen accountability measures for effective response in

preventing and mitigating violent farmer-herder conflicts.

Transforming Farmer-Herder Conflicts Annual Report Summary: September 1 2018 – August 31, 2019

2

o Expected Result 2.2: Relevant federal government and focal State governments have

improved and comprehensive approach to prevent violence and impunity, enhance

accountability by responders to protect the rights of both farmers and herders.

● Objective 3: To enhance public understanding of the farmer-herder conflicts by promoting

conflict sensitive contents and countering hate speech, stereotypes, biases, and negative

narratives that fuel violence.

o Expected Result 3.1: Increased availability of objective, neutral, and conflict sensitive

analysis and information related to farmer-herder issues, including the herder community’s

perspective of the conflict, for the public.

o Expected Result 3.2: Improved capacity of the media to provide coverage on addressing

impunity, enhancing accountability and the rule of law in addressing the causes, drivers,

and consequences of farmer-herder conflict in the focal states.

Theory of Change Search believes that if key governmental institutions, security forces, civil society organizations, and critical

community actors come together as partners with shared skills and knowledge regarding the implications

of impunity, accountability, rule of law, and current responses to farmer-herder conflicts, then they will

build a strong collaboration that can effectively identify and implement initiatives to address the causes,

drivers, and consequences of farmer-herder conflicts, combat impunity, and strengthen the rule of law and

accountability measures for the prevention of violence and protection of human lives, and the rights and

dignity of people.

Achieved Outcomes The project activities across the different objectives

aimed to bring different key actors together to build

their skills and knowledge and create a conducive

environment for collaboration. Search founded or build

on existing platforms to establish eight Community

Security Architecture Dialogues (CSAD) in each of

the target LGAs1 and three Peace Architecture

Dialogues (PAD) in the target states. These multi-

stakeholder dialogue platforms at the LGA and state

level hold monthly discussions on peace and security

issues in the communities. Their members include

government, security, traditional, and community

stakeholders from both farmer and herder communities.

The CSAD and PAD not only provide a space for collaboration between farmer and herder

communities on conflict issues, but they have also increased relationships and information sharing

directly from communities with state and LGA government authorities and security agencies. While

the CSAD take action at the local level, they also pass issues beyond their scope of influence to the PAD

for action at the state level. The PAD have been at the forefront of advocacy efforts for legislative action to

support peace and security in their states. For instance, in Benue state the PAD called for the establishment

of a state peace agency or commission2 and Nasarawa state the PAD has recommended legislation to

address the issue of kidnapping.3 The PADs were tasked with following up on these recommendations and

1 Although originally the project only aimed to cover two CSAD in each of the three states, the events in Jos North and Jos South

at the start of the project (outlined further in the annual report) demonstrated a need for the intervention to expand to these

additional two LGAs. Therefore, Search decided to support bi-monthly meetings for the four LGAs targeted in Plateau state,

while encouraging the platforms to continue to meet monthly on their own. 2 https://247ureports.com/2019/08/conflicts-stakeholders-to-call-for-a-peace-commission-in-benue/ 3 http://nigerianpilot.com/kidnapping-pad-pushes-for-legislation-to-curtail-menace/

Figure 1: Woman speaking during CSAD meeting in

Keana LGA, June 2019.

Transforming Farmer-Herder Conflicts Annual Report Summary: September 1 2018 – August 31, 2019

3

doing advocacy work to increase support from legislators. Search will be supporting their efforts in the

second year of the project.

Story of Impact: During the July 2019 CSAD meeting in Otukpo LGA, the Fulani Ardo (traditional

leader) reported an issue of extortion by livestock guards in the LGA. He reported that any herder who

gives the guards money will be allowed to graze in the field. The CSAD members took it upon themselves

and engaged with the Livestock Guard Commander of Otukpo LGA, Divisional Police Officer (DPO),

and Local Government staff to investigate the issue. During their next meeting in August 2019, it was

reported to the CSAD that they discovered that one of the identified guards was guilty and he was

suspended as a result. Further investigation is ongoing for continued oversight of the activities of the

livestock guards by the CSAD members and the investigation committee they established.

To build their skills and knowledge, CSAD and PAD members were

also trained through six Conflict Transformation, Human

Rights, and Dialogue Trainings. Overall pre- and post-tests

showed an average increase of 23 percent in knowledge of

participants on the material covered in the trainings. The

participants further demonstrated their understanding of training

content by organizing step-down trainings in their communities. For

example, in Keana LGA a female herder after the training

stepped down lessons learnt to other women in her community.

She organized a dialogue meeting with more than 13 female

herders and youths. During the meeting, she said, “We women and

mothers are more important in strengthening our youths to peace

efforts in the community because they always adhere to our words.

So we should use our voices to propagate the gospel of peace within

our families and the community at large." She added that other

components of the training such as honoring dignity, group identity,

and perspective and perception was also shared with the women. At the end of the dialogue meeting she

said that after some weeks the women she trained are also are stepping down the process with other women

in their community in Keana LGA.

To facilitate an immediate response to conflict issues at the community level, Search also organized a series

of intra- and inter-dialogues with flashpoint communities in the target LGAs. The process includes

initial intra-group dialogues to establish a safe space and identify underlying issues driving the conflict in

each community, followed by intergroup dialogues to collaborate and identify solutions and action plans.

These dialogues were facilitated by Search staff, following non-adversarial participatory approaches to

facilitation that emphasizes collaboration. As a result of these dialogues, participants were able to

identify common conflict issues, develop joint action plans, and change their perceptions of the other

group. The dialogues were usually between the farmer-herder communities in Benue and Nasarawa while

the dialogues in Plateau covered Jos North and South of Plateau state solely between Christian and Muslims

because of the nature of conflict.4 These dialogue processes has been proven to be an effective means of

bringing communities in conflict together to discuss sensitive issues. The dialogues have broken the ice and

provided continuous engagement between conflict parties and have been successful at de-escalating

tensions in the target areas, particularly following the outbreak of violence in Jos North and Jos South in

September 2018. Action plans developed during the dialogues included joint efforts at creating cattle

4From June to September 2018, violent conflict erupted in Rikkos, Rukuba road, Gada-biu, Kabong, Duste-Uku, Tina, Angwan

Rukuba, and Gangare communities of Jos North LGA in Plateau state as described in the context update above. Search decided to

proactively address these incidents in an attempt to mitigate the potential escalation of violence between these groups by

organizing dialogues in these communities.

Figure 2: Tiv and Jukun participants

during the Conflict Transformation,

Human Rights, and Dialogue Training in

Guma LGA doing an activity on identity,

May 2019.

Transforming Farmer-Herder Conflicts Annual Report Summary: September 1 2018 – August 31, 2019

4

routes away from residential areas, designating water areas for drinking, and establishing joint-

community security groups.

Story of Impact: The inter-dialogue in Riyom LGA in April 2019 was the first time the two communities

of Mahanga, a majority herder settlement, and Jol, a majority farmer settlement, met together to discuss

peace after 18 years of hostilities.5 The meeting ended with a joint resolutions concerning grazing

practices as well commitment for continuous engagements with security and government stakeholders to

encourage and provide safe spaces for every citizen. These resolutions will be further followed up by the

CSAD in the LGA to ensure continued collaboration between the communities.

Both LGA officials and community members

reiterated that while there have been many

interventions at the national and state level concerning

the farmer-herder issues, there has not been any follow

through to the local level to see what they have to say

on these issues. The participants commended the

uniqueness of Search’s approach to peacebuilding,

as they said Search is the only organization

implementing directly in the communities with the

main residents of the flashpoint communities

participating. This approach has resonated with

participants and they have taken up the dialogue model

and have applied it in their own area of work. For

instance, in Doma LGA of Nasarawa state, a peace

committee was setup by the traditional ruler comprising both farmers and herders with the aim of

resolving issues arising from the farmer-herder conflicts.

Despite the recent conflicts in Benue state, support for the process has been expressed by both

farmers and herders:

“This is the first time I am seeing this group

coming together as a result of Search’s initiative.

We are sure that with this, the issues are coming

to an end in the state, especially in Guma LGA.

We will continue to advocate for peaceful

coexistence in the state between the farmers and

herders.”

- Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of

Nigeria (MACBAN) Secretary, Guma LGA,

Benue State

"I wish the program had been in place for a

longtime before now. These issues would not

have become worse like they did, but I am

optimistic that with Search efforts already in the

LGA these issues have come to an end.”

- All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN)

Chairman, Guma LGA, Benue State

Recognizing the impact media has on farmer-herder relations and drivers of conflict between communities,

Search also engaged the media through a series of activities focused on building the capacity of media on

conflict sensitive reporting and journalism. Search began by organizing Conflict Sensitivity Trainings for

media professionals in each state from both traditional and new media outlets. Of these participants from

the training, 21 media fellows (10 male, 11 female) were selected to apply their learning from the training

5 https://www.sunnewsonline.com/insecurity-we-must-stop-killings-18-years-after-say-berom-fulani-women/ ;

https://www.sunnewsonline.com/plateau-murder-of-12-year-old-herder-native-sad-scg-says-security-adviser/ ;

http://skynewsafrica.net/index.php/2019/04/28/farmers-herders-in-nigerias-plateau-move-to-end-hostilities-after-18-years-of-

conflict/ ; http://skynewsafrica.net/index.php/2019/04/28/farmers-herders-in-nigerias-plateau-move-to-end-hostilities-after-18-

years-of-conflict/ ; https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/plateau-berom-fulani-in-riyom-resolve-to-end-hostilities.html

Figure 3: Participants developing action plans during

Keana LGA inter-dialogue with farmer and herders,

July 2019.

Transforming Farmer-Herder Conflicts Annual Report Summary: September 1 2018 – August 31, 2019

5

by producing relevant content that helps demystify farmers-herders conflicts, breakdown stereotypes and

biases, promotes positive narratives around farmer-herder collaborations, denounce rumors, and de-escalate

tensions that can fuel violence within the fellowship period in the second year of the project. This activity

was followed up with Conflict Sensitivity Media Roundtables in each of the three target states aimed to

enhance public understanding of the farmer-herder conflicts by promoting conflict sensitive contents and

countering hate speech, stereotypes, biases, and negative narratives that fuel violence.

“We want to sincerely thank Search for their efforts in ensuring we have forums to talk and iron out

our differences.” - Traditional Leader, Nasarawa state

Increased Collaboration: Overall the project activities have established relationships between participants,

who are beginning to build trust as they continue to interact. Their new connections were demonstrated

during the meetings, as it was observed that the participants would tend to call each other if they discovered

someone was absent during the meeting. The meetings have also built synergy between community

members, security agencies, and various government actors as decisions made during activities are

taken further by government actors and security agencies to ensure that solutions are found and action taken.

The phone numbers of the different security personnel were shared with participants to facilitate incident

and early warning reporting. These linkages and synergy have proved effective, as the participants of CSAD

organized advocacy visits to security agencies including the Joint Task Force on their own and made some

requests from the Commissioner of Police which were granted. According to Nigeria Security and Civil

Defence Corps (NSCDC) Desk officers in Keana and Doma LGA of Nasarawa state, the number of cases

on their desk relating to the farmers and herders have seriously reduced as whenever a case is

reported the parties involved usually decided to withdraw and resolve the case at the community level

using dialogue and mediation with the help of the traditional rulers. In cases where cattle is rustled, the

network of CSAD members involving the Department of State Services (DSS), police, vigilante, and

Nasarawa State Agency for Youth Empowerment Scheme (NAYES) collaborate to track the criminals and

several arrests have been made in this regard. There are cases of CSAD members sharing knowledge of

how to detect cattle-rustling across different communities and successfully collaborating to stop such

incidents from occurring.

Changed Perceptions: Monitoring visits revealed that the

perception of community members is changing as they now see

the issues from both sides of the conflict. They stated that they

now understand that the conflict does not affect them alone but

others as well. By discussing the underlying issues and hearing

from both sides of the conflict in this platform, other authorities

and stakeholders were able to gain a more nuanced understanding

of the conflict and change their approach to intervention

accordingly. As one security personnel from NSCDC in Guma

LGA shared, “As security personnel, we are trained to be violent

but being a member of the CSAD has seriously changed my views

about the farmer herder issues, which has also impacted

positively on my teams operation as we are more objective than

before.” This change in perception of the conflict has therefore also

improves local response mechanisms as security personnel are able

to act with less bias and less violence due to their increased understanding of the underlying issues.

Furthermore, media actors participating in the journalism trainings shared that they saw the errors they

made in the past that have fueled more conflict in the region. By the end of the training, many shared that

they realized their reports have contributed to the negative consequences of the conflict in their state,

and that this was not a constructive means to channel their pain. They focused on how to shift from

reactive reporting to proactive coverage that does not only report on the conflict when there is violence.

Figure 4: Farmer and herder women at

Conflict Transformation, Human Rights,

and Dialogue Training in Otukpo LGA,

May 2019.

Transforming Farmer-Herder Conflicts Annual Report Summary: September 1 2018 – August 31, 2019

6

Improved Understanding of Conflict Issues: Beyond resulting in a change in perspective, the dialogues

and discussions between farmers, herders, government, and security actors have increased the

understanding of all parties of the conflict dynamics, and the underlying causes, drivers, and consequences.

This has been particularly evident in the activities engaging media professionals. Participants were highly

engaged in the discussions which included the identification of commonalities shared by the two groups,

recognition of the lack of coverage of the herder perspective by the media and the media’s reasons for this

(i.e the herders are hard to reach in terms of location and they also rarely speak with journalists due to a

lack of trust), as well as human rights, governance, and economic issues related to the conflict. The

participants recognized the way in which the terminology affected people’s perception of the conflict, as

one participant from Plateau state said, “The issues regarding the conflict should not be seen as a farmer-

herder conflict rather as a rural conflict, because both parties are occupants of the community.” The

activities were well covered by the media as well, spreading the message of the discussions beyond the

participants directly engaged to the wider population.6

New Peace Champions: The participants were

recognized in their various communities as peace

ambassadors and mediators and reported that

community members and traditional leaders

sometimes call upon them to mediate in conflict

issues. The platforms’ work have been so impactful

that other agencies have taken it up as part of their

work. For example, in Benue state, NSCDC opened

a file on Search to document all the communities that

Search is working in and the actions taken in the state.

In Barkin Ladi LGA of Plateau State, it was reported

that the LGA Chairperson always reads the report of

the monthly CSAD meetings to ensure that actions

are taken on issues raised. The Transition Chairpersons of Jos North, Riyom, and Barkin-ladi LGAs have

made commitments to provide identification cards and customized shirts to CSAD members. Also, the

Chairman of Jos South LGA instructed that some of the CSAD members be included in the monthly joint

security meetings due to the CSAD’s high engagement and synergy with the security to reduce crime in the

LGA. The media fellows also fully embraced the responsibility of participating in this component of the

project. One female fellow said, “The fellowship means a call to action; it means I am putting in my

professionalism to bear to ensure that these communities ‘under my care’ move from tolerating

themselves, to accepting one another.”7 After their induction, the fellows churned out a series of news

reports, jingles, documentaries and programs to foster peace.

“When two people are fighting and they get tired and someone comes in to separate them, they will stop

immediately because they are tired. I will give maximum support to strengthen peace architecture in

Benue state. I wish Search started this intervention in Benue state long ago but we still appreciate their

effort.” - Traditional Ruler, Guma LGA

This increase in collaboration, changed perceptions, and new peace champions observed among key actors

in the target areas allows them to identify and implement initiatives to address the causes, drivers, and

consequences of farmer-herder conflicts to prevent violence.

6 https://nextedition.com.ng/2019/04/16/media-charged-reduce-incidences-farmers-herders-conflicts-reportage ;

https://nextedition.com.ng/2019/04/25/consultant-advocates-scrapping-of-normadic-education/ ;

https://nextedition.com.ng/2019/04/16/media-charged-reduce-incidences-farmers-herders-conflicts-reportage/ ;

https://thevoicenewspaper.net/2019/04/17/stakeholders-counsel-journalists-on-conflict-reporting/ 7 https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/08/why-peace-efforts-in-plateau-must-be-sustained/

Figure 5: Group picture of Benue state PAD members,

June 2019.

Transforming Farmer-Herder Conflicts Annual Report Summary: September 1 2018 – August 31, 2019

7

Output Tracker Activity

Number Target Outputs

Year 1

Target

Year 1

Outputs

Overall Target

Outputs

Overall Cumulative

Outputs Pending Notes

Goal: Prevent violence and the destruction of lives and properties resulting from protracted violent conflicts between farmers and herders while

combating impunity and promoting the freedom of religions and belief in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria.

Objective 1: To increase collaboration between farmer and herder communities to develop joint, effective, sustainable local mechanisms

for early warning response, dispute management, and violence prevention and mitigation at community level.

Act 1.1 Conflict Transformation,

Human Rights, and

Dialogue Training

6 6 6 6 0 Completed.

Act 1.2 Transformative Dialogue

Processes

9 18 18 18 0 Completed.

Act 1.3 CSAD 36 46 72 46 26 Ongoing, monthly

meetings in each LGA.

Objective 2: To mobilize religious leaders and policymakers to jointly counter violent rhetoric through positive public messages of religious

pluralism and respect of human rights.

Act 2.1 Middle Belt State PAD

Forum on Farmer-Herder

Issues

1 0 3 0 3 This was delayed due to

the elections and delay in

appointment of state

political appointees.

Act 2.2 State PAD Follow-up

Meetings

7 7 36 7 29 The Plateau State PAD

also held six meetings,

however these are not

directly supported by

Search and therefore are

not reported here.

Act 2.3 Advocacy Visits and

Bilateral Meetings

12 23 12 23 0 Completed.

Act 2.4 Conflict Transformation

and Human Rights

Training for Government

Actors

0 0 4 0 4 To be conducted in

September 2019.

Objective 3: To enhance public understanding of the farmer-herder conflicts by promoting conflict sensitive contents and countering hate

speech, stereotypes, biases, and negative narratives that fuel violence.

Act 3.1 Conflict-sensitivity

Training to Journalists

3 3 3 3 0 Completed.

Act 3.2 Conflict-sensitivity

Media Roundtables

3 3 6 3 3 First round completed,

second round to be

conducted in 2020.

Act 3.3 Media Fellowships 36 21 36 21 15 Ongoing.

Act 3.4 Social Media Campaign 0 0 1 campaign 0 1

campaign

To be conducted in the

second year of the

project.