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North Central Nigeria has experienced a series of deadly conflicts between Fulani herders and farmers. Contestation over ecological space and natural resources, prompted by climate-induced drought, has promoted a migratory form of pastoralism. The influx of Fulani herders in the region has triggered deadly eco-related conflicts between the host communities and the Fulani herders. Consequently, the RUGA settlement policy was unilaterally introduced to prevent migratory pastoralism, including, among others, to provide an immobile or stationary system of pastoralism in the host communities. This paper explains why and how host communities opposed the RUGA settlement policy in North Central Nigeria. As a significant contribution to the literature, its findings align with some theories that inform the possibility of host communities' resistance to top-down government policies, some of which are highlighted as implementation barriers to the RUGA settlement scheme. The paper acknowledges the relevance of participatory, inclusive, and consensus-based conflict resolution strategies, particularly at local community levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a value-based problem, religious conflicts are disruptive and protracted. Indeed, Nigeria has experienced a plethora of protracted religious conflicts since independence in 1960. Constituting major actors in these conflicts are young people, who play critical roles in fomenting and escalating them. Although extant literature acknowledges this preponderant place of young people in these conflicts, it tends to negate the potential constructive roles they play in managing the conflicts. This paper explores the disruptive and potential constructive roles of the youths as principal actors in religious conflicts in Nigeria. It argues that if armed with the right education on peace and tolerance, young people can play critical preventive and curative roles in religious conflict theaters in Nigeria. Exploring these youths' strengths is pertinent for a multidimensional approach to addressing religious conflicts and violence in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This briefing paper reports the impact of peace club infrastructure in the eight schools where such peace infrastructures were established in Nigeria. The study adopts an action research design and thematic approach in data analysis. The pre- and post-training test results and the focus group discussions point to a very positive outcome for the peace clubs. The study contributes to improving participants' knowledge in anger management and conflict resolution and builds participants' skills in anger management and in resolving their own conflicts amicably. It promotes a positive attitudinal change of participants and ensures a peaceful learning environment, which in turn enhances students' academic performance in schools. It provides a forum where students and even teachers express themselves on peace and conflict issues. It recommends peace clubs to school administrators, community managers, and policymakers as a viable policy option for sustainable peace in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2011, criminal activities of armed bandits in Northwest Nigeria have skyrocketed with enormous impact on lives and livelihoods. In the first seven months of 2019, the Nigerian government recorded over 330 attacks from armed bandits that resulted in the death of about 1,460 civilians. This briefing paper—which draws on relative deprivation theory—provides an account of the increasing cases of rampant banditry in the region, focusing on the motives and drives of armed bandits in the Northwest geopolitical zone in Nigeria. The account suggests a way forward to help resolve the disconcerting increase in conflict that has the potential to destabilize not only Nigeria but also the Sahel region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars are increasingly concerned about the global learning crisis, which is often measured by the number of In-School Children (ISC) as against the Out-of-School Children (OOSC). However, both contribute to the crisis. Consequently, school-aged children in the Almajiri system are characterized as OOSC. Interestingly, Nigeria has the largest number of such children in Africa. Following the clamor for reforms in the Almajiri system, the Government of Katsina State of Nigeria issued in 2019 an instrument called the “Responsible Parenting Almajiri Rights Edict.” This paper attempts to evaluate the learning and learner rights components of the instrument. The study combines the historical method, observation, and document analysis, with the constructivist paradigm as philosophical basis. Findings reveal that the edict fails to contextualize into the Katsina setting some of the most salient components of the Nigeria Child’s Rights Act and of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Chimamanda Adichie has received much critical engagement since the publication of Half of a Yellow Sun and The Thing Around Your Neck , Adichie's attempt to engage Half of a Yellow Sun as a literary platform both for articulating the trauma of Biafran experience and negotiating postwar reconciliation in Nigeria has been largely ignored. Seeking to cover this gap, this paper argues that while the novel attempts to reconstruct love and coherence from the heap of historical disorder by offering a seemingly unbiased diagnosis of the events of the war, it however makes the urgency for dialogue and reconciliation its symbolic gesture. Examining the experiences and reactions of the central characters in the novel, the paper contends that Adichie offers a new perspective that challenges the perpetuation of the ethics of national disintegration. Deploying Edward Said's postcolonial theory of nationalism in articulating the novel's insistence on integration rather than separation, this paper seeks to demonstrate, therefore, how Adichie's artistic projections suggest that postwar dialogue is a necessary step toward engendering viable togetherness in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper specifically focuses on the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in Borno State, which is a hotbed of the Boko Haram insurgency. It examines the evolution of CJTF as a local initiative response to security challenges, which can be an effective way to defeat the insurgency. On many occasions, CJTF has been useful in spotting Boko Haram insurgents, repelling attacks, and liberating towns and villages captured by Boko Haram. In addition, this group has been a vital link in the intelligence gathering network necessary for successful Special Military Joint Task Force (SMJTF) operations. The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the contribution of CJTF in counter-insurgency operations in Borno state and investigate whether CJTF could be a useful approach to counter-insurgency in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legitimacy of the Nigerian state has been challenged at different times since the attainment of political independence by actors either clamoring for self-determination or propagating exclusive religious agenda. Curiously, the state, rather than engaging these groups (including Boko Haram) in dialogue, has usually chosen to confront them. This paper interrogates how the Boko Haram insurgency constitutes a major challenge to the legitimacy of the Nigerian state and how the state has responded, given its experiences in handling violent challenges to its legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Identity conflicts, in their diverse ramifications, have been the subject of major studies in Nigeria. However, conflicts between students of higher education institutions and their host communities, now commonplace in the country, have not been given adequate scholarly attention. This paper examines the violent conflict in May 2000 between students of the Federal Polytechnic, Offa, (FEDPOFFA) and the Offa community in Kwara State, North Central Nigeria. Not only was the conflict unduly protracted, but it also led to the closure of the polytechnic for a year, while peacebuilding efforts continued. By offering explanations for this development, showing its policy and research implications, the study contributes to the understanding of a neglected aspect of identity conflicts in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children are important members of any society. Their development is a responsibility not only of government, but also of the entire global community. In Nigeria, an otherwise good practice of the almajiri has turned into a social milieu that captures the attention of every well-meaning Nigerian and indeed the global community. The practice, which hitherto promoted the child's right to education, now promotes denial of other basic rights, like shelter, food, health care, and love, as well as the right the practice tends to promote. In light of these issues, this paper advocates the reformation of almajiri in Nigeria, using human rights as a basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study dissects the patterns and trends of communal violence in Nigeria with the need to watch out for emerging predictors. Using variables like ethno-religious polarization, lootable resources, and climate vulnerability, the article dissects their impacts on the trends of communal violence in Nigeria. Based on data from the Nigerian Security Tracker, Nigeria Watch, and the Federal Ministry of Environment (2014 to 2021), this study uses cluster analyses of the conflicts using maps and tables to analyze the patterns and new dimensions of conflicts. The study found evidence that ethno-religious polarization is a predictor of trends of communal violence in Nigeria. The weakest predictor of communal violence, according to the model, is climate vulnerability in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing number of IDP camps in Nigeria due to insurgency and displacement has continued to pose serious policy as well as budget issues. The challenges and needs of these camps differ and require proper identification and isolation so as to direct limited resources effectively. Using the demographic data published by Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) on the IDP camps for 2021, an intelligent and optimized K-means cluster analysis was employed to classify the camps and identify their unique features for the purpose of guiding government policies and budget aimed at improving the standard of living in the camps. In four clusters, the model successfully classified 164 of the camps as having major poverty and health issues, 114 as having overcrowding and health issues, eleven as having overcrowding issues, and thirteen as living a normal life. The results provide a suggestive guide for imminent aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nigerian Civil War forced the evacuation of some five thousand Biafran children to Gabon and Cȏte d'Ivoire, where they were camped as child refugees. History has emphasized humanitarian considerations, but newly declassified archival records reveal that acrimonious political interests determined the involvement of various actors in evacuating the children out of Nigeria and in later repatriating them. This article queries the practices by which politicians and others tended to play politics with child refugees of war. Employing a historical approach to politics and twentieth-century humanitarianism, it intersects refugee studies, politics, humanitarianism, and the war by examining the politics of evacuation, repatriation, and resettlement. In the process, it generates new questions about the children's experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Representations of almajiri within popular literature often associate the system, and the attendant youth demographic, with youth delinquency and social violence. Yet few accounts correctly identify what almajiri is, how these young men are distinct from other youth categories in northern Nigeria, and why the system has undergone gradual collapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nigeria has been facing a violent uprising by Boko Haram since 2009. In terms of nature and organization, the sect is more sophisticated and deadlier than any previous radical Muslim group in Nigeria. Hence the question, is Boko Haram a home-grown movement or is it an al-Qaeda affiliate? The answer to this question has produced two contrasting positions among scholars. By carefully considering the evidence marshalled by each side, the article argues that Boko Haram was initially a home-grown movement. However, as its conflict with the Nigerian state intensified, its linkage with AQIM, al Shabab, and other al-Qaeda affiliates also deepened. There is mounting evidence that it has received foreign funding, weapons, training, and logistical support, which can no longer be overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two decades, religious extremism and its consequences have assumed a wide-reaching dimension in northern Nigeria. Although this trend has been the object of many studies in recent years, many of the efforts have been spent on understanding the role of structural factors in relation to the crisis. While not downplaying the importance of structural factors to the issue, this study focuses on jihad discourse and its implications on religious extremism in the region. Using jihad sermons delivered by two prominent Sunni clerics in northern Nigeria (Shaykhs Jafar Mahmud Adam and Dahiru Usman Bauchi) as its database, the article shows that the sermons contain certain discursive strategies entangled in the religious politics of contemporary Nigeria. The research finds that in addition to preparing a manual on when and how to use violence to counter perceived religious violence from the "religious others in contemporary Nigeria," the discursive strategies in those sermons are also deemed capable of inviting their consumers to internalize violence and become potential recruits for violent religious groups, even though the speakers are not known as members of such groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the peacemaking architecture within the scope of sociocultural processes in Southwest Nigeria. The study was carried out in Southwest Nigeria, focusing on a limited number of cases. Qualitative data were collected and analyzed using the content analysis method. It found that local institutions had a noticeable effect on the peacemaking processes on communal conflict; but they are, to a marked level, incapacitated owing to the lack of modern organizational powers to exert authority, poor access to detailed information about crises, and a conflict of interest. It therefore concludes that local institutional strength on peacemaking has not developed to the extent of overcoming inter-communal and inter-ethnic crises. Rather, its strengths and successes lie more in dealing with intra-communal and micro-conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on Boko Haram has focused mostly on the group's violent actions. Underlying those actions, however, is a fairly deep-seated apocalyptic rhetoric that goes back to the preaching of Muhammad Yusuf (d. 2009). During the ten-year period since Boko Haram's transition toward activism, this use of apocalyptic rhetoric has become more pronounced. The question posed should be, is this an organic development within a Salafi-jihadist group that developed connections with the Islamic State during 2014–15 (and since) or is this rhetoric historic to northern Nigerian Islam going back to Shehu Usman Dan Fodio and his jihad? To what extent is Boko Haram beholden to its ideological forebearers in Nigeria from an apocalyptic point of view? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have become increasingly pessimistic about Nigeria's achieving military victory against Boko Haram. The group's ten years of incessant combat, increasing military capabilities, and continuing alliance with the Islamic State are among the reasons why scholars hold this view. If Nigerian military victory is unlikely, then the question arises about whether negotiations present a solution. However, we are also pessimistic about negotiations because Boko Haram is, and has always been, a jihadist group, which by definition means it does not negotiate peace; Islamists, in contrast, negotiate. Nevertheless, this article acknowledges Boko Haram does engage in "single-issue" or transactional negotiations. Although single-issue negotiations are far different than "process" negotiations that can lead to peace, the former type of negotiation represents the only way forward to diplomatically engage Boko Haram for the foreseeable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a critical analysis of the Nigerian military response to Boko Haram. It first debunks the current narratives of a global jihad to show that the local dynamics of an asymmetric war are more important to explain properly the resilience of insurgents. It then explores some of the causes that help understanding the prolongation of hostilities, especially the structural weakness of the military. The body count of the dirty war against Boko Haram reveals that the Nigerian security forces played no small role in killing civilians, hence the necessity to think about alternatives to military repression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nigeria with its neighboring countries has endured a decade (2009–19) of insurgent attacks from Boko Haram, an Islamic fundamentalist group, that have led to the death of over 30,000 people, displacement of over three million people, and the destruction of properties. Boko Haram has remained active and dangerous, despite the relatively successful counterterrorism and counter insurgency efforts by the Nigerian military, the regional counterterrorism force, and assistance from the international community. Several publications on Boko Haram have shed light on its different aspects and manifestations, but questions remain. This article attempts to answer two inadequately answered questions: first, is Boko Haram a local or global terrorist organization? Second, is Boko Haram driven by ideology, grievance, or greed? The article seeks to connect the dots and tie the loose ends by assessing the group's motivations, threats, activities, and responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing interest in the field of religious peacebuilding in the last two decades, the role of religion in peacebuilding is yet to be mainstreamed. Evaluation of peacebuilding success has been identified as one of the major challenges facing the field in the twenty-first century. Using the cities of Jos and Kaduna in northern Nigeria, in which major religions have significantly contributed to peacebuilding, as case studies, this study explores the factors that explain the success of faith-based post-conflict peacebuilding in these two cities between 2000 and 2015. The multi-faith approach, pacifist strategy, grass-roots peacebuilding, and commitment were outstanding in the success of faith-based peacebuilding in the two cities. These achievements support the growing evidence that bottom-up approaches as well as collaborative strategies are key strengths of faith-based peacebuilding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region hosts a long-standing conflict among residents, the government, and foreign oil companies operating in rural areas. Both peaceful and armed cadres of men have led mobilizations against extractive operations but then all-female demonstrations arose relatively suddenly, seemingly separate from men, starting in 2002. Based on qualitative field data, this ethnographic case study explores how women's perceptions of law informed their decision to protest in response to their oil-related grievances from 2002 to 2012. It asks why women avoided the use of formal state law, remaining embedded in localized traditional law for formal, rights-based legal matters. The main findings are that women see written law from the state as inherently good but corrupting individuals as the reason it cannot be galvanized for conflict resolution. They also perceive a binary between local and state law, with indigenous leaders acting as gatekeepers controlling access between the two legal planes. This study suggests that traditional law may impede women's ability to resolve their oil-related problems in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on research with British Nigerian youth who were sent to boarding school in Nigeria, I argue that such movement, and the transnational practices that it engenders, serve as a family accumulation strategy and are central to reproducing middle-class subjectivities. Their transnational practices lead to the accumulation of cultural capital, in the form of educational qualifications and particular dispositions, and social capital, in the form of extended friendship networks. Parents endeavor to give their children the best educational and networking opportunities and, in so doing, distance them from places and people in London that they devalue and see as morally degenerate, yet paradoxically, it is their children's performance of Britishness that serves as a form of cultural capital and endows them with status in the eyes of their contemporaries at boarding school in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil-related activities have led to environmental degradation that has not only engendered the decline of traditional economic activities in oil-bearing areas, but also led to a violent communal crisis, youth militancy, and the government and oil companies' brutal repression of protests and violent demonstration by the people of the Niger Delta. This study examines the interrelationship between environmental insecurity and poverty in the oil-bearing areas of the Niger Delta region with a special focus on Ilaje in Ondo. Data were derived through interviews with key informants, focus group discussions (FGD), and extant literature. Overall, environmental dislocation has not only engendered poverty in oil-bearing communities, it has also fueled conflict and violent attacks on oil facilities by the aggrieved local people, leading to a vicious cycle of environmental insecurity, the erosion of livelihoods, and poverty in the Niger Delta region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An issue that influences political discussions on Nigerian nationhood is the reality of the ethno-religious identities that make up that country. The stakeholders in Nigerian politics have tried to find ways of consolidating the unity of their country amid signs of failure evident in the emergence of dissident and oftentimes violent groups calling for self-determination. The recent Boko Haram crisis is a case in point, which has seen a call for an Islamic state in the north. The resurgence of MASSOB and IPOB in the southeast, with their protests and rallies advocating for Biafra, is also a sign of deep-seated desire of certain ethnic groups for self-determination. It is argued that the core problem with Nigeria will be found in the reality of diversity and oftentimes incompatibility of the entities that make it up. Discord and a lack of consensus are apparent among the political elites and ethno-religious groups, on what the Nigerian nation is and should be. Building on extant literature, this article problematizes the resurgence of ethnic consciousness in Nigeria and presents a way forward out of the quagmire the nation finds itself in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the contested narratives engendered by the teaching and writing of the Nigeria-Biafra War. Drawing on the domain of education, it interrogates official and hegemonic narratives forged by the Nigerian state to shape the history, memories, and narratives of the war to suit its own vision, interests, and politics, in the light of marginalized ethnic groups that contest these narratives and reject them as the sole legitimate framework for remembering and interpreting the war. The analysis interrogates the extant education-reconciliation nexus, exploring the kind of education that will best serve the needs and processes of conflict resolution, reconciliation, and nation building in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local markets in Nigerian cities are under-studied but ubiquitous and ancient sites of inter-ethnic conflicts and cooperation of everyday people (traders). Against the backdrop of indigene-settler conflicts in two major markets in Lagos, this study examines the causes of these conflicts, defined by the adversarial use of autochthony, their management and outcomes, and how macro-inter-ethnic relations inflect conflict and cooperation in local markets. While market leadership is a common cause of conflict, the management approaches adopted and outcomes differed in ways that reveal the impact of the macro on the micro. Also, post-conflict relations in markets underscore the utility of trade as a means of sustaining peaceful co-existence in a fractious country like Nigeria and the creativity of everyday people in peacebuilding, designing early warning systems, and conflict management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically and empirically examines the everyday problem of corrupt policing and related abuses in urban Nigeria, with attention to the threat posed to ordinary Nigerians' basic human rights. The analysis, sociohistorically anchored, foregrounds colonial and military policies that have entrenched a culture of predation in the Nigeria Police Force. The article contributes to existing scholarship by directly relating corrupt and abusive policing to complex sociohistorical conditions, rather than seeing it as a purely managerial problem, whose solution lies in simplistic demands for internal reform. The article attempts to fill a gap in empirical scholarship by approaching corrupt and abusive policing from the angle of everyday practice, rather than by taking normative structural approaches and basing suppositions of actual behavior upon these. The article draws on evidence from eight months of ethnographic fieldwork research in Lagos State, southwestern Nigeria. The fieldwork evidence is supported by analyses of public discourse, a review of extant literature, some semiformal interviews, a review of national constitutions and international human rights law, and historical research. These together suggest conclusions pertinent to democratic reform of the Nigerian police. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies suggest that the liberalization of university education, which paved the way for faith-based and other nonstate players in the higher education sector, improved access to and the morality and quality of education in Nigeria. The validity of such claims is far from settled, but adequate attention has not been focused on the unintended political fallout of the nonstate entry into university education. Drawing on the responses of a random sample of 1,886 respondents from eleven university campuses (five public or state universities and six faith-based universities), this article examines how different university education experiences produce variations in citizenship along the dimensions of obedience (readiness to comply with state orders and willingness to pay tax), interfaith accommodation (willingness to vote for and support candidates from another religious group), and patriotism (disposition to volunteer or sacrifice for the state). The study reveals that public or state university respondents are stronger along all these dimensions than faith-based university respondents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nineteenth-century Yoruba linguist and Anglican bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther wanted the next generation of Nigerian leaders to be committed readers and writers and throughout his career he pursued this goal effectively. The essay begins with a brief account of the social and literary contexts in which Crowther produced and promoted literature. Then the essay draws from unpublished letters from the middle part of Crowther's career to show how he framed his literary project as something unprecedented and novel-as if he were inaugurating a new 'age of literature'-but then turns back to show how he also framed it in terms of preexisting literary traditions, both 'pagan' and Islamic. What emerges is a piece of a literary history too complex to be conceptualized as a progression from precolonial orality to colonial literacy and literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on military officer Chukwumeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who has proclaimed the creation of the Republic of Biafra at a paty in the Enugu city, Nigeria. Topics discussed include reasons for creation such as saving residents from abuses they suffer, poets and writers such as Chinua Achebe, and survival tactics and acts of solidarity.