An assessment of the effectiveness of use of mediation by traditional institutions for resolving herders-farmers conflicts in Enugu state, Nigeria

A notable conflict in Nigeria today is the farmers-herders conflict. The objectives of this study were to: Ascertain the whether traditional institutions were involved in the resolution of farmers-herders conflict in Enugu State; and Examine the effectiveness of the use of mediation by traditional institutions in the resolution of farmers-herders conflict in Enugu State. The study adopted the survey research design. The population of the study comprised 712,303 adult residents of the selected communities in the three selected local government areas of Enugu State. The selected local government areas were Nkanu-East (Enugu East senatorial zone); Aninri (Enugu West senatorial zone; Uzo Uwani (Enugu North senatorial zone) from which communities prone to farmer-herders conflict were selected. The Taro Yamane formula was used to determine a sample size of 400 and the Bowley proportional formula for the allocation of the questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics while a one-sample t-test was used to test the hypotheses at a 5% level of significance. The result indicates that the use of mediation by traditional institutions had a significant positive effect on the resolution of farmers–herders conflicts in Enugu State, Nigeria. The study hereby recommended that mediation, as conflict resolution strategy should be continually applied.