Abstract
This article examined media’s perspective on insecurity in Nigeria against the background of herdsmen and farmers conflict in Benue, State, North-central and Enugu States, Southeast Nigeria. With existing literature focusing more on causes and historical antecedents of the conflicts, the paper aggregates Peace Journalism as well as national development imperatives as key factors in resolving the conflicts.
Highlights
Sectarian conflicts across Nigeria have become a nightmarish experience for citizens on a growing basis
This paper presents the report of an analysis of newspapers’ coverage and reportage of herdsmen-farmers conflict in Benue and Enugu states with a focus on the prominence, source and themes emphasized in the reports
The finding from the study showed that the majority of news items had their origin from newspaper reporters or correspondents (42.8 %) or herdsmen and their associates (31.4%), or government officials and a few sundry commentators while farmers were recorded as source in 1.9% times
Summary
Sectarian conflicts across Nigeria have become a nightmarish experience for citizens on a growing basis. The herders-farmers conflict – its nature, origin, motivation and impact –constitutes a subject of discussion across the media and among citizens. The need to understand how the media covered the herdsmen and farmers conflict, in addition journalists’ peace orientation motivated this study which examined how the Nigerian media have interacted, interpreted and reported the conflict. This is against the background that past studies (Ekeanyanwu, 2007; Odunlami, (2017; Akpoghiran and Otite, 2012) suggest that Nigerian press operate more as active players in political crises and conflicts than as impartial judge
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