Traditional Institutions Management: A Case Study of Pasturist Conflicts in Borno State, Nigeria

The study was conducted to assess the traditional institutions management: a case study of Pasturist
conflict in three selected Local Government Areas (Damboa, Jere and Magumeri LGAs) of Borno
state, Nigeria. Muti-stage sampling technique was used to select 225 sample size respondents which
include farmers (150) and herders (75) respectively. A structured questionnaire and interview
schedule were used to collect data for this study which was analyzed using descriptive statistics
(frequency and percentage) and PRA (Pair wise Ranking) tool. The results revealed that (89.3%) of
the respondents are of the opinion that, the most preferred strategies for managing conflicts between
farmers and herders in the study area are the traditional institutions. Results in Table 2 shows that the
farmers ranked the resolution of conflict through the payment of compensation as the first while the
herders (Table 3) ranked it second. However, the study recommend that the traditional rulers in
conjunction with all the stakeholders at the village level should maintain routine or annual meetings
with farmers and herders for the avoidance of conflict between the farmers and herders in the area.
Also, traditional institutions should be strengthen through constitutional amendment, thus, to return
their power to adjudicate conflict in the rural areas which had been taken away by the 1976 Local
Government Reform. The study found that there are existing traditional institutions which are
attempting to manage this conflict. The respondents expressed their satisfaction with the performance
of the traditional institutions in managing the conflicts between farmers and herders in the localities.
However, the results revealed that majority (89.3%) of the respondents are of the opinion that, the
most preferred strategies for managing conflicts between farmers and herders in the study area are
the traditional institutions. More so, the farmers ranked the resolution of conflict through the payment
of compensation as the first, while the herders ranked it second.