NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS’ COVERAGE OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN HERDERS AND FARMERS IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The media are a major player during periods of conflict by virtue of theinfluence they can exert on the public’s understanding and perception of conflict situations. The agenda the media set and how issues are framed can also impact on the direction or outcome of conflict situations. The conflict between herders and farmers- the conflict-focus of this study- is a leading resource-use conflict in Nigeria primarily caused by the competition to have access to land and freshwater. The aim of this study was to examine the extent and patterns of coverage of the herders-farmers conflict by national newspapers in Nigeria. The agenda-setting theory, media framing theory, and the social responsibility theory formed the theoretical foundation to this study.

The research method adopted for this study was content analysis. Three Nigerian national newspapers- The Punch, The Guardian, and Vanguard- were purposively selected. The time frame for this study spanned a period of 20 months: from January 1, 2015 to August 31, 2016. The purposive sampling technique was used to select weekday editions and exclude weekend editions of the selected newspapers. The census or complete enumeration technique was used to study the entire weekday editions of the three newspapers published within the 20-month period, resulting in a sample size of 1,305 editions from an accessible population of 1,827 editions. A total of 687 contents on the herders-farmers conflict were found, coded, and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Findings revealed that the selected newspapers were episodic in their coverage by presenting the herders-farmers conflict overwhelmingly through news reports while, comparatively, doing little in terms of interpretation and analysis. The newspapers largely accorded low prominence to issues on the herders-farmers conflict with the placement of a majority of stories on the inside pages and far less on the front page. It was shown that the newspapers varied their coverage across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Results showed that the newspapers were reliant on government officials, security personnel and victims/eyewitnesses as their major news sources. It was found out that the newspapers dominantly adopted the criminality frame, resolution frame and the political response frame. Indicating herders as the principal perpetrators of violence, the newspapers framed the conflict more as criminal attacks by herders rather than as clashes between herders and farmers. Also, the newspapers were critical of the Nigerian government in their editorial reactions to the government’s level of intervention in the herders-farmers conflict.

The study concluded that, despite their inclination towards war journalism, the selected newspapers played some parts in the mitigation of the herders-farmers conflict, and performed their watchdog role over the government effectively. The study recommended, among other things, that the Nigeria press should be more interpretative and analytical in their coverage of the herders-farmers conflict;that journalists should be regularly trained in conflict-sensitive reporting and peace journalism; and that the Nigerian government should develop and execute policies that would address both the root and situational causes of the conflict.

Keywords:Newspaper Coverage, Herders-Farmers Conflict, Framing, Resolution, Peace

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Violent conflict is a foremost global conundrum. There has been a major rise in intrastate conflicts in the 21^st century. Contemporary conflict trend shows that intrastate conflict is the dominant form of violent conflict in the world, while interstate conflict has declined considerably in recent years compared to the 1900s (Cottey, 2013; Kegley & Raymond, 2010). No continent is spared as both developed and developing nations are struggling with one form of internal conflict or the other. Spates of terrorism, insurgency and civil strife, leading to vicious destructions, displacements and deaths, are now persistent across the world.

Alongside the Middle East, Africa has attained quite a reputation for violent conflict. Since the end of the Cold War between the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States of America (USA), most armed conflicts on the continent of Africa have been internal in nature (Cilliers & Schunemann, 2013; Vogts, 1994). Scholars and observers have identified a number of factors responsible for the growing profile of internal violent conflicts in Africa. These causative factors include poverty, poor governance, corruption, human rights violation, ethnic and religious rivalry, and small arms proliferation (Annan, 2014; Aremu, 2010; Cilliers & Schunemann, 2013; Vogts, 1994). Some observers, such as Anup (2010), also maintain a retrospective perspective, placing conflicts in Africa as a consequence of colonialism.

Internal conflict has been a recurrent narrative in Nigeria since her independence in 1960. Conflicts in the country are often incited under religious and ethnic pretexts. As Anifowose (1982) observed, “a great deal of the post-independence troubles in Nigeria arose because of the politicisation of ethnic loyalties by the political elite” (p. 12). The Census Crisis of 1962/1963 and the Nigerian Civil War between 1967 and 1970 are only two of many instances of ethnically-induced violence in the country. The latter still stands as the single most devastating violent conflict in post-independent Nigeria. Conflicts in Nigeria also take on religious identity. Disagreements between adherents of the two predominant religions in the country- Islam and Christianity- easily degenerate into violence, whereby killings and destruction of property are perpetrated. Violent disagreements between Christians and Muslims are usually rooted in their race for ascendency (Muhammad, 2008). Religious conflicts may be provoked by perceived ridicule of tenets or doctrines of a particular religion. Laws or policies on religious practices may also incite conflicts. In the year 2000, for instance, there were violent clashes between Christians and Muslims in some Northern States due to the introduction of Sharia law in those states.