Interactions between territorial partitioning, indigeneity crises, and farmer-pastoralist conflicts in the Benue-Nasarawa region

Abstract

The paper explores interactions between jurisdictional partitioning, indigeneity crises, farmer-pastoralist conflicts (FPCs), and territorial conflicts between Benue and Nasarawa States in Nigeria. Drawing on ethnographic research, the paper examines how jurisdictional partitioning resulted in an informal boundary dispute between villagers on the Benue-Nasarawa border, which escalated, and was escalated by, the indigeneity crisis and tensions between farmers and herders. The results are exclusion, counter-exclusion, violent confrontations in neighbouring jurisdictions with similar social groups, and a formal boundary dispute between Benue and Nasarawa States. Thus, what we see in the Benue Valley is an interconnected web of crises reinforcing each other, creating a vicious circle of conflicts. The article contributes to the literature by showing how territorial partitioning along the lines of identity, and broader territorial politics between subnational jurisdictional units, shape farmer-pastoralist conflicts, and vice versa. I demonstrate that while partitioning can reduce regional tensions that can threaten the stability of a state, it can breed further ground-level tensions in ethnically heterogeneous areas like the Benue-Nasarawa border and can compound conflict between subnational jurisdictional units.