Assessing Communication Strategies for building peace between Farmers and Herdsmen in Nigeria

Olijo, Innocent Igwebuike

ABSTRACT

  This study investigated communication strategies for enhancing peace building efforts between farmers and herdsmen in Nigeria. Four research questions guided the study while survey was adopted as a design for the study. A sample size of 200 was purposively selected from Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu, Institute of Management Technology Enugu, Coal City Fm and Dream Fm. Four strategies- constant communication, awareness creation, integrated communication and peace talk and negotiations- were delineated to guide the study. The result was analysed using simple percentages. The result of this study showed that 51% of the respondents reported that constant communication between farmers and herdsmen can build peace between the two parties to a very large extent.,45% reported that awareness creation on the need for mutual understanding between farmers and herdsmen can build peace to a very large extent and 52% reported that the use of integrated communication can enhance peace building between farmers and herdsmen to large extent and 36% reported peace talk and negotiations can enhanced peace building effort between farmers and herdsmen to a very large extent. Further studies are recommended to adopt a more systematic approach to investigate the same area.

KEYWORDS: Conflict; Communication; Farmers; Herdsmen; Peace Building; and Strategies

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