Discursive construction of the farmer-pastoralist conflict in Nigeria

The farmer-herder conflicts (FHCs) in Nigeria have aggravated in recent years, and so too has its scholarly inquiry. However, there is yet a critical geopolitics analysis of the conflicts despite their geopolitical manifestations. This paper explores the geopolitical imagination of the conflicts based on the “ Grammar of Geopolitics approach” of Gearóid Tuathail. Data used were newspapers’ stories and supplemented by government and independent bodies’ reports. The article shows that the conflicts are represented with ecological and socio-political storylines with local, regional, and global inclinations. They are imagined as evolving from local disagreements to entangle regional political crises and shaped by global environmental shocks (especially climate change) on local communities. The geopolitical storyline of the Nigerian government portrays the conflict as entrenched in lands and amplified by regional crises. The administration’s proposed socio-spatial arrangement (cattle colony) to segregate nomadic herders from arable farmers to avert violence has failed to gain traction in Nigeria’s various areas. The policy itself contradicts the ancient system of nomadic pastoralists, who flourish in smooth space and would not thrive in a constrained striated space. Thus, apart from addressing the environmental and ecological problems associated with the conflicts, the issue of regional geopolitical dynamics within Nigeria and the West Africa region has to be considered. Removal of regional barriers to access and inclusion of the pastoralists in resource use via a trans-regional framework recognizing local needs and disparities is vital. The paper indicates that the grammar of the geopolitics model can handle the media discourse of the FHCs in Nigeria well and helps to organize the narratives (if corroborated with extant scholarly literature as in the case of climate change-FHCs nexus) in such a way that avoids falling into inherently subjective trappings of the media storylines. Thus, the model is best suited for its purpose–to analyze geopolitical imaginations emanating from media sources.

This article considers the ways in which knowledge and research influenced the design of a programme to reduce violent conflict in Nigeria. The diversity of sources and forms of conflict in Nigeria, and the way that local grievances interact with national struggles over politics and resources, combined with a need to show measurable results within five years, made the task of programme design extremely challenging. The article discusses how the project design team responded to this challenge. It describes the four main lessons that emerged from dialogue-based research studies that helped the design team formulate a theory of change for the programme, and subsequently its methodological approach and activities. The studies shaped the central theme of the project, which was the need to transform conflict management institutions into genuinely inclusive forums for dialogue, thereby regaining the trust of those currently excluded from dialogue but yet most affected by violence – particularly unemployed youth and women and girls. The article does not portray research and knowledge simplistically, as the sole solution to project design issues. Rather, it shows that if research findings can take designers directly to the core of the problems as perceived by those most affected by them, then they can play a critical role in designing appropriate interventions and, as implementation proceeds, to demonstrating progress towards project goals.

In recent years, policies have been introduced, involving multiple stakeholders, including government bodies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and local communities. The paper examines the place of collaborative policy framework in managing the ongoing farmer-herder conflict in Nigeria. By analysing the successes, limitations, and challenges of these policies, this paper highlights the critical role of inclusive governance in effective conflict management. The conflict, driven by environmental pressures, socio-economic changes, and political factors, has led to significant violence, displacement, and economic losses across affected regions. The paper recommended a beneficial collaborative policy partnership formula to reduce, if not eliminate, the perennial farmer-herder conflicts when judiciously implemented.

The conflict between farming communities and herders in Nigeria has increased in the last four years. It has become a subject of discourse in various domains, including the media and body politic. The intensification of the crisis has spurred renewed scholarly attention to the other ways the conflict could be understood. The increased role of media in the crisis has been identified, but existing studies on the role of the media focus on media reportage, framing and coverage. There is relatively scare research on the politics of media discourse of the conflict, which can reveal representations of subjects and identities, subject-positions, subjectivity and power relations in the narrative of the conflict. Thus, this research analyses the politics of newspapers’ discourse of the conflict in Nigeria. The representations of the conflict cluster around five albeit overlapping themes, namely causes, victims, consequences, government’s responses and resolution strategies to the conflict. The discourse of the dispute is constructed as a security issue which embodies other forms of security viz national security, food security, the security of statehood and unity of the nations that make up the Nigerian state. The article shows that the construction of the conflict draws on the political and ideological dispositions of the papers. It argues that the link between the newspapers’ representation of the conflict and the strategies they proposed for curbing the dispute is weak. Thus, while media representations of the conflict can reveal the various contestations in the framing of the conflict in Nigeria, it might be insufficient to establish the link between discourse, identity and policy. Further, it argues that developing a sustainable strategy for the resolution of the crisis requires among other things, a national dialogue.

The North-East region of Nigeria has been the epicenter of Boko Haram attacks and killings since 2002. Recently, the group has extended its menace to the North-West and North-Central regions. Compounding the menace of Boko Haram in these regions, are the activities of the Islamic State’s West African Province (ISWAP), a breakaway terrorist group from Boko Haram and the administrative division of the Islamic States (IS). These armed groups’ renewed attacks on helpless Nigerians, facilities, and institutions have worsened the situation in Northern Nigeria, as they attack both public and private facilities, including the civilian populations and objects. The armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and other security agencies engage these armed groups, as both parties fight for supremacy. Nigeria is a State Party to some international instruments regulating the conduct of war and human rights. How far have the country and the armed groups respected and observed the rules of these international instruments in their hostilities? This research paper, therefore, examines these situations and evaluates the activities of these armed groups and the responses by the government of Nigeria with a view to determining whether they have reached the threshold of armed conflict. Chapter one examines the evolution and ideology of Boko Haram and defines certain key terms, whilst chapter two deals with the status of Boko Haram under international humanitarian law. Chapter three discusses the effects of the activities of the groups. In chapter four, the paper examines the efficacy of the responses and interventions by the government, international community, and non-governmental bodies, whilst chapter five concludes with some far-reaching recommendations.

Studies in Media and Ideological Representation of Herders / Farmers Conflict in Nigeria

The term ‘quango’ has lost all its original precision as it has come into popular usage. But widespread use has at least directed attention dramatically to an area of modern government which, though murky and hard to define, is where much of the political and administrative ‘action’ now undoubtedly takes place. The difficulty lies, of course, in gaining any intellectual bearings on this vast and apparently formless mass of organisations, collectively, and therefore uselessly, now called ‘quangos’, lying between Government Departments themselves, on the one hand, and truly private or independent bodies and companies, on the other. This essay will briefly explore three broad issues running through this developing structure of ‘semi-government’ which is loosely known as the world of ‘governmental bodies’, ‘quangos’ or ‘fringe bodies’. These issues are: 1. The extent to which recent government growth in Britain has taken place outside the civil service structure. As will be stressed, a funny thing happened to ‘megabureaucracy’ on its way to 1984. 2. The bewildering heterogeneity of types of central governmental bodies and some of the ways in which one may attempt to grasp or classify this apparently formless mass. 3. Some of the possible implications of an increasingly indirect and fragmented structure of central administration for the ‘delivery’ of policy in British government. KeywordsCentral GovernmentCivil ServiceGovernment DepartmentGovernmental BodyGovernment GrowthThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

A Model for Tort Liability in a World of Driverless Cars: Establishing a Framework for the Upcoming Technology

Book Review| May 01 2023 Review: The Forbidden Body: Sex, Horror, and the Religious Imagination, by Douglas E. Cowan The Forbidden Body: Sex, Horror, and the Religious Imagination. By Douglas E. Cowan. New York University Press, 2022. 315 pages. $89.00 hardcover; $30.00 softcover; ebook available. Joseph P. Laycock Joseph P. Laycock Texas State University Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (2023) 26 (4): 118–120. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.26.4.118 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Joseph P. Laycock; Review: The Forbidden Body: Sex, Horror, and the Religious Imagination, by Douglas E. Cowan. Nova Religio 1 May 2023; 26 (4): 118–120. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.26.4.118 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentNova Religio Search Douglas Cowan has written several books exploring religion and popular culture from a sociological perspective. Two of these––Sacred Terror (2008) and America’s Dark Theologian: The Religious Imagination of Stephen King (2018) explored the connection between horror and the religious imagination. Cowan’s new book builds on this body of scholarship by adding a third element: sex. The result is a challenging book that resists simplistic or reductionistic interpretations of horror texts and instead raises challenging, and sometimes disturbing, questions about the affective relationships between these texts and people who read them. In order to explain what this book is about, it is necessary to break down the triad of elements that it examines. First, The Forbidden Body does not just explore horror, but “the horror mode.” Cowan borrows literary critic David Hartwell’s definition of the horror mode as “the creation of an atmosphere and emotional environment that sparks a transaction... You do not currently have access to this content.

Bridging gaps in food labelling.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to gain a deeper understanding of how independent craftspeople adopt and use social media (SM) in order to promote their creative enterprise. However, some of these opportunities may place a demand for specific knowledge, business and technical skills on untrained artists. The purpose of this paper is to look into this emerging phenomena, the challenges and opportunities it presents and to propose solutions or recommendations to independent artists, training organisations, and government bodies who may wish to promote the creative industries.Design/methodology/approachIn order to identify different modes of adoption of SM and some of the related challenges within this domain, interviews were conducted with independent craftspeople in order to explore these topics and identify emergent themes. The research focuses on an ethnographic study through an interpretive lens; Habermas' theory of communicative action is drawn on to explore the adoption and use of technology by craftspeople to promote their work and business.FindingsThe paper identifies some of the most current challenges for the independent craftsperson in adopting SM to promote and sell products. While participants are aware of benefits of SM technologies, lack of time, lack of technical knowledge and unfamiliarity with new media technologies are all highlighted as barriers to adoption. Proposed recommendations include training and support offered by government development agencies, and cooperatives employing social media experts.Research limitations/implicationsSituated within the context of an ongoing ethnographic study, this study was a specific episode carried out at a craft fair to investigate the specific theme of SM adoption for product promotion. Given more time further interviews could be carried out to include a greater range of participants. Craftspeople who work entirely out of a workshop and do not attend events such as craft fairs could be interviewed to give further insight. A future study will present an analysis of the content of web sites, third party portals and social media posts to understand the interactions that take place through web technologies and social media.Originality/valueThe findings of this paper can be used in shaping support solutions for independent craftspeople wishing to adopt SM as a method of promoting their product or craft. The discovered challenges may be used to identify potential problems of the Internet and SM for the independent craftsperson. Findings can also be used to inform hosts of e‐commerce sites for independent artists, they may also be used to inform government and funding bodies.

Brazil’s Ministério Público (“MP”), or prosecuting agency, is a unique institution. Unlike public prosecution entities in other countries, such as federal prosecutors in the United States, the MP is the primary enforcer of Brazil’s environmental laws and initiates the vast majority of environmental public civil actions. In the United States, most environmental suits are citizen suits filed by private actors, but in Brazil, the MP files almost 96 percent of those same cases. These actions have improved compliance with environmental laws and helped contribute to the MP’s reputation as an independent body, separate from the corruption known to plague other governmental bodies in Brazil. While the MP’s lawsuits have proven effective, they are adversarial in nature and preclude more cooperative means of regulation. Additionally, prosecutors within the MP feel as if they must respond to every complaint they receive, which keeps them from prioritizing the largest environmental harms. As scholars like Robert Kagan, John Scholz, and John Braithwaite have noted: a rigid, punitive style of enforcement may not be appropriate in all situations with all regulated actors. This legalistic manner of enforcement creates tension between the MP, the regulated actors, and environmental agencies; slows the enforcement process; and strains the MP’s limited resources.This paper proposes creating a second branch of the MP’s offices: a more mediative style of enforcement for less culpable actors, in line with actions that certain members of the MP’s office have already begun to take. Prosecutors within this mediative branch would go beyond judicial remedies and would collaborate with environmental agencies, government bodies, and community members to solve challenging environmental problems. This plan is already within the range of autonomy given to the MP and would allow the MP to retain its reputation as an independent, un-corruptible enforcer, while also remedying some of the problems and inefficiencies that result from the current rigid, legalistic enforcement style.

Background: HBV is the leading global cause of cirrhosis and primary liver cancer. However, the UK HBV population has not been well characterised, and estimates of UK HBV prevalence and/or incidence vary widely between sources. We summarised datasets that are available to represent UK CHB epidemiology, considering differences between sources, and discussing deficiencies in current estimates. Methods: We searched for estimates of CHB case numbers in the UK (incorporating incidence and/or prevalence-like data) across a range of available sources, including UK-wide reports from government bodies, publications from independent bodies (including medical charities and non-governmental organisations) and articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals to collate estimated positivity rates. An alternative proxy for population prevalence was obtained via the UK antenatal screening programme which achieves over 95% coverage of pregnant women. Results: We identified six CHB case number estimates, of which three reported information concerning population subgroups, including number of infected individuals across age, sex and ethnicity categories. Estimates among sources reporting prevalence varied from 0.27% to 0.73%, congruent with an estimated antenatal CHB prevalence of <0.5%. Discussion: Estimates varied by sources of error, bias and missingness, data linkage, and substantial "blind spots" in consistent testing and registration of HBV diagnoses. The HBV burden in the UK is likely to be concentrated in vulnerable populations who may not be well represented in existing datasets including those experiencing socioeconomic deprivation, ethnic minorities, people experiencing homelessness and people born in high-prevalence countries. Together, these factors could lead to either under- or over-estimation of overall prevalence, and additional efforts are required to provide estimates that best reflect the whole population. Multi-parameter evidence synthesis and back-calculation model methods similar to those used to generate estimates of HCV ad HIV population-wide prevalence may be applicable to HBV.

The regulation of business by state agencies of various kinds is itself becoming big business for researchers in the United States of America and Europe, using analytical approaches drawn from political science, law, economics, sociology, socio-legal studies, and law and economics.' Selfregulation by business has also been the subject of much enquiry.2 But these two types of regulation do not complete the set. It is not only firms or independent bodies which regulate themselves or are regulated by the state. Government bodies are also subject to regulation by other government bureaucracies.

Reviewed by: Images of Purgatory: Studies in Religious Imagination and Innovation (The Czech Lands, 1600–1800) by Tomáš Malý and Pavel Suchánek Marc R. Forster Images of Purgatory: Studies in Religious Imagination and Innovation (The Czech Lands, 1600–1800). By Tomáš Malý and Pavel Suchánek. Translated by Stuart Roberts. (Rome: Viella. 2021. Pp. xviii, 260. €36,00. ISBN: 9788833137421.) This detailed and densely argued study examines images depicting Purgatory in Catholic churches in the early modern Czech lands (Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia). The analysis of these images is placed in the context of the evolving theology of Purgatory, as well as the religious practices and popular beliefs that were linked to Purgatory. The authors show how Purgatory provides an excellent window into the nature and evolution of baroque piety in Early Modern Catholicism. The book is structured as a kind of top-down analysis of Purgatory. Chapter One discusses doctrine, Chapter Two the images, and Chapter Three pious practices around Purgatory. Chapter Four examines “popular culture,” that is unofficial beliefs and practices, sometimes called here “debatable” practices. This simple and somewhat old-fashioned structure does not do justice to the nuances of this study. The authors [End Page 205] are always interested in interactions between different media, social groups, and cultural traditions. Developments in the Czech lands are examined in the context of international Catholicism, with reference, for example, to pious literature from Germany, Spain, and France. The interactions between written texts and the images found in churches and chapels is also central to the study. The study is informed by wide reading in Czech, German, English, and French-language historiography and is methodologically sophisticated, particularly in its discussion of images. This study will open the eyes of historians who only know about the doctrine of Purgatory from Martin Luther’s critique of indulgences. Purgatory was confirmed at the Council of Trent, and gained importance in Catholic religious practice in the seventeenth century. Maly and Suchánek link much of the growing role of Purgatory to the Jesuits. From the beginning of the Society, the Jesuits promoted meditative practices that focused on imagination and emotion, most famously in the Spiritual Exercises. Purgatory, and images of Purgatory, were good for this kind of piety, with visions of tormented souls in Purgatory stoking the fears of punishment and appealing to the sympathy of the faithful. Pious practices around Purgatory were supported by, and in turn encouraged, other aspect of baroque piety. The authors highlight the growing importance of “privileged altars” (or indulgence altars), where people could pray for the release of family members and friends from Purgatory. The altars were often founded by confraternities and religious orders, important promoters of baroque religion. “The new altar allowed everyone, regardless of social status, to take an active part in commemorative rituals and was a reflection of the post-Tridentine concept of requiem culture with the principle of the exchange of merits between the living and the deceased” (p. 157). This “requiem culture” was also important in pilgrimage piety and processional practices, other important elements of Catholic culture in this era. The images of Purgatory drew on early modern ideas about the emotions. Emotions were understood to stimulate the “passions of the soul” and lead people to piety. Furthermore, the authors emphasize that “. . . in the case of Purgatory, negative emotions (fear, pain) and positive emotions (hope, the certainly of salvation–joy) were combined” (p. 88). The images presented in the book show the intensity of emotions as well as the “extraordinary multi-layered nature and diverse variety of the post-Tridentine iconography of Purgatory” (p. 81). This iconography reinforced Catholic doctrines of the Eucharist, the Passion, the cult of Mary, and the cult of St. Joseph, as the patron saint of the good death. Maly and Suchánek insist nevertheless, that the images of purgatory, while often didactic, also responded to the beliefs of the common people. For example, although fire was officially the only punishment found in Purgatory, the images also depict snakes, demons, dragons, and other creatures tormenting the souls in Purgatory. An important conclusion of Images of Purgatory is that the engagement with Purgatory changed perceptively over the period of this...