Environmental degradation responsible for incessant farmers herdsmen clashe-Lai Mohammed
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has attributed the incessant clashes between farmers to what he described as ‘environmental degradation.’
Mohammed said this at a mini-town hall meeting organised for the staff of the Nigerian Embassy in Berlin, Germany.
He, however, assured that the federal government was committed to finding a lasting solution to the clashes, which had led to lost of lives and property in the nation.
The minister in a statement by his spokesman, Segun Adeyemi, noted that whereas Nigeria’s population in 1963 was about 48 million, it is now about 180 million, with the country’s land mass remaining the same.
This, he said, means there are more people per square kilometre, which raises the chances of clashes over dwindling resources.
He added that Lake Chad that used to provide water and other resources to more than 30 million people in four countries, including Nigeria, in the early 1960s, had shrunk by about 90 percent from 25,000 square kilometres to 2,500 square kilometres, thus forcing those affected to move south in search of resources.
“These and other reasons, like desertification, have altered the resource landscape, heightened competition for dwindling resources and raised the possibility of clashes between farmers and herders,” the minister said.
According to him, the establishment of ranches is one sure way of reducing such clashes.
Mohammed noted that in resolving the crisis, both the farmers and the herders must be willing to slightly shift for lasting peace
