Nigeria loses $14b annually to farmers, herders clashes – Fayemi

Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has said Nigeria loses $14 billion yearly to the lingering farmer-herdsmen clashes.

Fayemi spoke on Thursday while delivering a paper, titled: Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Nigeria: Implications for National Security, at the National Institute for Security Studies (NISS) Executive Management Course in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

The governor called for the enactment of appropriate states and Federal legislative frameworks and strategies to resolve farmer-herder conflicts and the attendant loss of lives and property.

He also canvassed the need for effective and strategic communications of government policies on this and other national issues to ensure that the right messaging reaches the citizenry and save the country from avoidable crises.

Fayemi said the extent of the challenge requires that government moves to unpack what has become a major threat to peaceful coexistence and food security in the country.

The governor noted that the fatalities recorded from the farmer-herder clashes outnumber those of the devastating insurgency in the Northeast and led to the loss of more lives in Nigeria than in the rest of West Africa.

Dr Fayemi, who called for the enactment of state and Federal laws to foster peaceful coexistence, despite the nation’s diversity, added that such legislations on regulating the conduct of farmers and herders must have a human face and must harness the country’s economic and socio-cultural potentials.