Thread by @toluogunlesi

Fellow panelist Gogontlejang Phaladi shares a “South African joke” about it being cheaper to take a taxi to go and show someone a video than to buy data and send the video by Whatsapp. #APSD2019 #CostOfData

Side conversation on how big a problem animal theft is in Botswana and South Africa. Just like Nigeria. Rustling of sheep, goats, cows. And it’s often armed/violent attacks. Question that follows is: how can tech assist? Animal Tracking, Drone Surveillance, etc.

I think we seriously underestimate the scale and impact of cattle rustling in Nigeria, and the centrality of its contributing role to what typically gets reported (often without serious scrutiny or real investigation) as ‘farmer-herder clashes.’

A couple of underlying points:

1. Cattle are a huge store of wealth - even more so in rural/isolated areas. A small herd of cows anywhere in Nigeria is easily worth US$10,000–$20,000. Per capita income is a fraction of that; annual minimum wage an even smaller fraction.

1 (contd):
What other personal assets can you find in rural communities that come close to the financial value represented by cows? This makes them an extremely vulnerable target for rustlers - and this is a challenge across Africa, as my first tweet highlights.

2. The rustlers are increasingly Armed and violent. Proliferation of weapons (cue the collapse of Libya and Gaddafi’s stockpiles) has complicated the issue. Cattle herders tend to be no match for them. Again this is not a Nigerian issue alone:

https://twitter.com/NGRPresident/status/1013459012820533248

3. There’s a fundamental ‘reporting’ problem with cattle rustling attacks. Because of nomadic nature of the herders, attacks on them are far less ‘visible’ than attacks on settled communities. Impact of attacks generally invisible to media and wider world. Big problem.

With the grossly skewed reporting (see prev tweet), little wonder all the generally accepted narratives revolve around viewing one side as aggressors and the other as victims, when in reality there are aggressors and victims on both sides, and no one has monopoly of violence.

Get the reporting and the narratives wrong, and you’ll get the diagnosis wrong. And of course get the solutions wrong. Ask yourself how many reports of cattle rustling do you see in the media. Very few. And yet this is a big element of the scaffolding of farmer-herder violence.

The more commonly reported incidents have to do with cattle encroaching farmlands, triggering cycles of violence. This also cannot / must not be downplayed.

But it throws up another important issue - of cattle routes that predate farmlands and communities. Some of you might know large swaths of FCT used to be cattle grazing routes, long before the FCT even came into being. So, in many cases, grazing routes predated farms/settlements.

Yet another way in which our land administration challenges have complicated other issues, w/ implications for national security etc. Sometimes the herders accused of trespassing actually predate the communities accusing them. With no justice-oriented land admin, grievances mount

Climate Change is another big problem. With desertification, Lake Chad a tenth or so of its 1960 size, with Nigeria’s population growth rates (we’ve doubled our population in the last 30 years), overlaid with inchoate land admin systems - no surprises about today’s circumstances.

Very good paper from @CRbuildpeace here:

“Primary reasons for rise in farmer- pastoralist conflicts in Nigeria are increased pressure on land/water in rural areas, combined w/ weak/non-existent state interventions to mediate/resolve growing tensions.“ c-r.org/downloads/Nige…

“Media reporting tends to focus on attacks by pastoralists on farmers/villages, implying that these are unprovoked. While some may be & there‘ve undoubtedly been many large-scale attacks involving pastoralists, pastoralists often victims of attacks by villagers/bandits as well.”

The ethnic stereotyping & stigmatization that follow are really distasteful/ unacceptable.

“... increasingly, ‘criminal behaviour is being defined by ethnicity & occupation, not by the act itself.’”

This is where failings of media come into full view c-r.org/downloads/Nige…

“Media reports attribute blame to the Fulani. The Voice, a daily newspaper in Benue State, wrote: "Armed Fulani militia last Wednesday killed 3 persons in Gwer LGA of Benue state." The term is often used in talk shows, incl. Sunrise Daily on @channelstv.”
google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.c…

Large parts of Nigerian Media extremely guilty of dismissive and simplistic reporting of issues that should be treated with respect and nuance, and with as much focus on solutions and on success stories (and there are success stories!) as on the challenges themselves.

Speaking of solutions: multilayered issues must necessarily have multilayered solutions. The solutions are obvious from the above: everything from tech, to better data gathering, to land reforms, to more responsible media reporting/behavior, to peacebuilding and improved justice.

I’m optimistic about the FG’s National Livestock Plan, which is focused on working with State Governments on attracting and supporting investment in ranches for herders. There must be investment in modernizing livestock mgt on the same/greater scale as Anchor Borrowers Prog etc

The Governors have an extremely important role to play. What we’ve seen around Nigeria is that Governors have greater influence on security in their States than many of them acknowledge.

Saw this on FB yest. A decade ago Anambra was Nigeria’s Kidnapping Capital.

A State like Lagos launched a Security Trust Fund, an important partnership with the private sector to fund the spending aimed at supporting (Federal) law enforcement agencies. Brilliant, impactful move.

I believe I recall former Oyo Governor Ajimobi speaking about establishing a pattern of monthly meetings with farming and pastoralist communities in Oyo State, with security agencies in the room as well - everyone sitting to talk and engage and resolve issues before complication.

Plateau State still has challenges. But the relative peace it’s enjoying today is significant improvement on c1999–2006, & pre-2015. A big part of this has been because of the current Gov’s approach His predecessor mishandled the religious/ethnic tensions in the State very badly.

One of recent initiatives from Plateau worth studying is @PLSPeaceAgency. In Kaduna we have @KDPEACECOM, chaired by Secr Gen, Anglican Communion Worldwide, Josiah Idowu-Fearon; widely respected by the Muslim Community, w/ a Masters in Islamic Studies & Muslim-Christian Relations.

How can young Nigerians get involved:

1/Resist ethnic stereotyping/stigmatization. No ethnic group in Nigeria has monopoly on criminality/banditry

2/Techsavvy youth can help. I’m told a young person in Botswana has developed a livestock tracking system that works online/offline

3. Get yourself more familiar with your country’s history and diversity, and with the nuances embedded in our ethnic, linguistic and cultural differences

4. Hold all tiers of Govt to account, incl (& especially) State Govts. Govs have a lot of power to resolve communal conflicts

One more thing: forgot to include earlier: Getting herders to drop ancient, inefficient grazing practices will take time, but is doable. We just have to invest as much energy and resources in it as we invest in convincing farmers to take up new seed variants & farming practices.

There’s nothing static about culture. Today’s itinerant herders are tomorrows settled ranchers. Everyone benefits. The cows (more milk, more meat, less by-force-fitfam), the herders (higher quality of living), communities and the entire country (greater peace, Agric growth).