Nigeria looks to technology to resolve ancient rivalries

A farmer prepares water channels in his maize field in Ngiresi near the Tanzanian town of Arusha on Tuesday, July 17, 2007. Millions of farmers around the world will be affected by a growing movement to change one of the biggest forces shaping the complex global food market: subsidies. Many experts agree farmers need help to grow food year in and year out, but Western farmers may get too much and African farmers too little. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)

A farmer prepares water channels in his maize field in Ngiresi near the Tanzanian town of Arusha on Tuesday, July 17, 2007. Millions of farmers around the world will be affected by a growing movement to change one of the biggest forces shaping the complex global food market: subsidies. Many experts agree farmers need help to grow food year in and year out, but Western farmers may get too much and African farmers too little. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)

Distrust between farmers and herdsmen has led to Nigeria looking at technology to resolve rivalries.

World Bulletin / News Desk

At the heart of the seemingly intractable crisis in Nigeria’s “Middle Belt” – a region populated mainly by minority ethnic groups – is pervasive distrust between farmers and herdsmen.

Now, however, local activists are looking to new technology in hopes of resolving the longstanding rivalry between the two groups.

Farmers and herdsmen in the region accuse one another of damaging the other’s economic lifeline, resulting in endless fights that have claimed thousands of lives – and crippled local business – over the years.

Farmers accuse herdsmen of destroying their farmlands in order to feed their cattle; herdsmen, for their part, accuse farmers of stealing their livestock.

“These accusations and counter accusations have led to bitter clashes that have claimed several lives,” Mazi Okwu Okwu, a Nigerian public affairs commentator, told Anadolu Agency.

“The situation is not helped by both sides’ claims of land ownership and the fact that both are of different ethnic origin and practice different faiths,” Okwu said.

“These primordial divisions have made what is purely an economic rivalry assume an ethno-religious dimension in many cases, especially in the north-central region and the Middle Belt,” the commentator added.

Local stakeholders have called for the establishment of dedicated grazing zones with a view to limiting damage to farmland. Experts, however, warn that frequent cattle rustling – the mass theft of livestock – is fostering enmity, bloodshed and economic losses across the country’s northern region.

“Traditionally, cattle rustling has been driven by the criminal intent to expropriate cows for meat or for sale,” according to Yunusa Yau, executive director of the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), a Nigerian NGO that is working on finding solutions to the problem.

“Over the years, cattle rustling has evolved into a pattern of organized crime of immense sophistication and efficiency,” Yau said.

But this is just one aspect of the phenomenon.

Sufyan Lawal Kabo, CITAD’s media officer, said cattle rustling can also have an ethno-religious dimension, depending on what part of the region it is occurring in.

In recent years, the longstanding rivalry between farmers and herdsmen has also surfaced in southern Nigeria, occasionally leading to bitter clashes.

According to Kabo, cattle rustling is a purely economic crime – carried out largely by criminal gangs – in most parts of the northeastern Bauchi State, while most incidents of livestock theft in the northwestern Zamfara State are directly attributable to “sectarian issues”.

“What we found in Zamfara is completely different from the perception of gangs of robbers simply stealing cattle. Rather, it is a sectarian problem in which certain Fulani tribesmen are avenging past wrongs by Fulani from other areas,” Kabo said.

“Cattle rustling in this case is a form of revenge, committed by one section of the Fulani community against their fellow Fulani,” Kabo explained.

But in the Middle Belt – as in Nigeria’s Plateau, Taraba and Benue states, where Hausa-Fulani herdsmen often clash with local farmers of different ethnic and religious backgrounds – the scenario is completely different.

“Cattle rustling in Benue, Plateau and Kaduna states has ethno-religious undertones. Some of the farmers there kill cattle men and kill their cattle for allegedly destroying their farms,” Kabo told Anadolu Agency.

“This is pure revenge,” he asserted. “Like I said, the reasons differ from place to place.”

 Looking to technology

According to Yau, CITAD is currently moving from state to state teaching herdsmen how to use technology to end the longstanding phenomenon.

“As part of CITAD’s peace building efforts, we are holding seminars for herdsmen on the use of a technology we call the Cattle Rustling Information System (CaTRIS) to document, track and help rescue cattle from rustlers,” he said.

At the seminars, herdsmen are taught how to use social media – under the rubric of CaTRIS – and set up networks of volunteers to track down and rescue stolen livestock.

According to Yau, CaTRIS involves “geomapping cattle tracks and grazing reserves to allow victims of cattle rustling to send information by text message, whatsapp or other forms of social media to the network control center.”

The center, he added, “then broadcasts the information – using various channels – to a network of volunteers who help relocate the stolen cattle.”

Yau believes that tracking stolen cattle will be easy for volunteers who have access to instantaneous “geo-referenced information” as to where the incident occurred and the routes affected.

But beyond deploying technology to find cattle thieves, Yau also believes that the government must address cattle rustlers’ longstanding grievances and provide effective security in all cattle-rearing communities and along traditional nomadic routes.

CITAD to establish cattle rustling information system in Zamfara

From Ibrahim Sidi Muh’d, Gusau

A Kano state-based non governmental organization, Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has expressed commitment for the provision of access information regarding preventive measures against cattle rustling and method of engagement with relevant stakeholders on how to achieve to minimise the ugly terrain in Zamfara state.

The Leader of a team on the platform of the organisation, Malam Sufiyanu Lawal Kabo, who presided over major part of the technical session held in Fulbe Villa hotel in Gusau, the state capital, noted that cattle rustling has been one of the greatest challenge bedevelling the country especially North-eastern part following some of the local based NGO’s were suffering dearth of appropriate capacity to access data pertaining cattle rustling to share with relevant stakeholders with a view to acquire a lasting solution to the problem.

Malam Kabo, who urged members of the Civil Society to remain pro-active in supporting CITAD to succeed it aims, informed that a team of volunteers would be mobilsed in the State immediately after the establishment of Center for Cattle Rustling Information System so that relevant information regarding cattle rustling could eventually be accessed and shared among the stakeholders for continuous advocacy and engagement.

The Center has equally organised training for the members of the Civil Society in the state on the use of the Social Media in promoting peace among the Nigerian citizenry.

The workshop has succeeded to have inculcate the stakeholders on the importance of using social media as an effective instrument for ensuring sustainable peace-building, thereby caution participants on the dangers surrounding use of social media as means of attacking personalities as well as base less campaigns.

The State Focal person of CITAD, Malam Musa Umar explained that, the objective of organising the capacity training was to engage all the relevant stakeholders especially members of the Civil Society to embark upon intensified campaign for peace and find a lasting ways to end the unwanted cattle rustling in the State.

REPORT ON THE WORKSHOP ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR PEACE ADVOCACY TRAINING FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS IN ZAMFARA STATE

By Sufyan Lawal Kabo

In addition to the previous Social Media for Peace Advocacy workshops in Kano, Bauchi, Abuja and Jigawa state, the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) with support from MacArthur Foundation conducted a one-day training on Use of Social Media for advocacy for CSOs in Zamfara state. Twenty (20) organizations attended the workshop which held at Fulbe Villa Hotel, Gusau, capital of Zamfara state on 12th of June, 2015.

The workshop was organized over the course of one day and it included combination of presentations, interactive discussions, and roundtable sessions.

The specific objectives of the workshop was:

  1. To conduct training for civil society organizations members to use social media to promote tolerance, diversity and peace in Northern Nigeria
  2. To encourage CSOs to setup social media platforms for peace campaign
  3. Develop and deploy social media platforms to be used to promote tolerance, unity in diversity and peace in Northern Nigeria
  4. Engage civil society organizations and other stakeholders to articulate alternative appropriate and effective framework for addressing the myriad of violence afflicting the country

 

Malam Musa Umar, CITAD’s Focal Point in Zamfara gave the welcome remark which he in it described the background and objectives of the workshop. He further stated that social media is a powerful and widespread communication platform for exchanging ideas and information among citizens, institutions and communities and it has presented enormous opportunities in utilizing them for peace campaign and other socio-economic development.

 

The first presentation was on Understanding Social Media facilitated by Malam Musa Umar. He described ICTs as a media shorthand for new communications technologies and can be unique in three important ways: these are Ability to transcend time and space constraints,  de-professionalization of information processing and Integration of the various forms of media into a common platform. Besides, it is a web-based and mobile technology to turn communication into an interactive dialogue.

CITAD Media Officer, Sufyan Lawal Kabo took the next paper titled Case Study which explained the myriads of unrests engulfing the northern part of Nigeria as a result of insurgency attacks. This was made to be more of an interactive session in order to gain inputs and for experience sharing among the participants. The presentation also explained the objectives, goal and methodology of the peace project initiated by CITAD.

The next item was the theoretical and practical on Use of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube apps by CITAD Peace Club Officer Malam Kamilu Isa– these include how to build friends and followers.

Other papers being presented during the workshop were: Planning Social Media for Advocacy, Using Social Media for peace campaign and Evaluating Social media campaign.

During the group work session, the participants split in three groups and came up with some recommendations as follows:

  • Civil societies should synergize to advocate to the legislators for network improvement by the service providers for effective social media advocacy.
  • CSOs should collaborate with media organizations/Media Houses to disseminate peace messages
  • CSOs should try to make good use of use of social media for their activities.
  • Government should make bandwidth more affordable to citizens
  • CSOs should work actively towards sensitizing the people at the grassroots on the use of the social media for advocacy
  • CSOs should use social media to promote peace and national unity