Paper Title
Your Land or your Life: Cattle Rights and Human Rights in Buhari’s Nigeria
Abstract
Clashes between Northern-based Fulani pastoralists and farmers in the Middle-Belt and Southern Nigerian states over increasingly dwindling pastures and water sources has become more frequent and deadly in the last few years. The first part of this paper considers the ecological and social context of the Fulani herdsmen-farmers conflict. The second part is a concise effort to differentiate armed Fulani herdsmen directly responsible for mass atrocity crimes across the country from other Fulani who are not part of this group while the third part offers critical analysis of government effort to confront the Fulani herdsmen problem. In conclusion, the paper reflects on the implications of the Buhari administration’s policy on this issue for human rights protection in the context of contemporary Nigerian political culture.
Keywords - Human Rights, Governance, Democracy, Tribalism, Violence, Diversity, Fulani Herdsmen