Violent armed conflict between nomadic herdsmen and sedentary farmers in nigeria: a consocial need for integrated community based security surveillance

Abstract

This paper highlights the importance of establishing integrated community-based security surveillance system (ICSS), as a major step  towards improving the detection and assessment of violent conflicts between Nomadic Herdsmen and Sedentary Farmers in Nigeria. The  system is an adaptable low-cost security initiative, designed to improve internal security and strengthen rapid response to security risks.  It is to be managed by communities for their protection against external forces through monitoring unusual events and reporting same  to appropriate authorities. The ICSS volunteers are to bolster community surveillance in collaboration with law enforcement agents and  in line with these 3 cardinal operational contexts: -to monitor security trends and trigger response operations; enhance operational  security in the affected communities; and to operate in complex environments where there is manifestation of weak, bad, and declining  institutional security framework, and/or where there is limited surveillance coverage. This fundamental proposal is therefore a bid to  cover security gaps that have widened the ethnic and religious crises in Nigeria, while also contributing to existing local knowledge and   identifying militating factors surrounding such armed conflicts in Nigeria.