The study used both primary and secondary data. It combined survey techniques involving the use of interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs) and spatial area studies with a comprehensive review of extant secondary data: literatures, journals, government gazettes,
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and media reports. Primary data collection relied on personal face-to-face interviews due to the low educational level of most of the targeted informants, largely herdsmen and native farmers most of whom required language interpreters. Divergences in languages spoken among the host and migrant population, as well as the wide spatial distribution of study areas across ethno-geographic regions also informed the employment of interpreters.
The study used the area frame method in gathering data across the four identified rural host communities in 4 states across the two geographic regions as a representation of Nigeria. The farmers and peripatetic agro-pastoralists in those communities constituted the focal population of the study. A total of 30 respondents participated from each community, making up a total of 120 respondents or informants engaged in the study through face-to-face interviews. The composition of the respondents in each of the four selected communities were as follows: 10 farmers, 5 migrant pastoralists, 5 native youths (non-migrants), 2 community leaders (1 native, and 1 pastoralist), 1 traditional head each (Emir or Oba as the case may be), 1 top personnel from the corresponding office of the Nigeria Police and 1 top Local Government Authority official—making 2 government officials, 5 urban dwelling youths engaged in irregular jobs: this is sub-divided into 4 natives and 1 migrant. Youths in specific occupations, particularly commercial motorcycle riders, mobile shoe-repairers, or water vendors were targeted due to the prevalence of occupationally displaced persons in such jobs, their high propensity to engage in crimes, as well as their ready availability for violent political, ethnic, religious or other mobilizations (Ikot et.al, 2011; LSGN, 2011;
Ukwayi et.al, 2013).
In selecting potential interviewees, a snowball sampling technique was used to identify farmers, agro-pastoralists in their camps, while purposive sampling was used in selecting key community leaders, government officials and traditional authorities in each of the communities or in proximate districts. A purposive sampling technique was used in selecting youths to be interviewed in urban centres. A purposive sampling technique was used where snowball technique did not lead to sufficient numbers of targeted agro-pastoralists. The service of an interpreter was engaged in each community to mitigate language barriers. Data analysis and presentation used statistical tables, charts, models, diagrams and summaries as was considered suitable for each data set. More sophisticated statistical tools and parametric estimates were employed where necessary.
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Engaged host communities were categorized into two: primary host communities which includes the four rural communities namely: Efon-Alaaye in Ekiti, Iseyin/Shaki in Oyo, Udeni-Gida community, Nasarawa Local Government Area, Nasarawa, and Oke-Ero in Kwara states. Proximate cities which provide immediate haven for rural emigrants were used as secondary host destinations. These cases were selected in consideration of three important parameters which helped in streamlining the connectives drawn. Accordingly, preference was on (1) vulnerable locations with records of Farmer-herder conflicts, (2) those among parameter 1, in which, in the course of preliminary study, the researcher observed higher volumes of youth involvement in agriculture. This is important in order to unravel the secondary implications on youth retention and rural-urban migration, and (3) locations which conform with the substantial presence of the two forms of pastoral influx (i.e. transitory and sedentary forms of migration) and also reflect the north-south migratory routs as captured in literature, media reports, as well as researcher’s preliminary investigations.22 In selecting the cases, consideration were given for minimal interference from existing ethnic and religious disputes, in order to, as much as practicable, isolate environment-induced conflicts from other forms of violent conflict.
Uniquely, the research examined links between observed migratory adaptation trends and wider security threats in urban and sub-urban areas associated with the influx of large population of mainly youths from rural areas (Emeh, 2012). Both urban and suburban areas serve as secondary host destinations for vulnerable youth who often experience loss of livelihoods and become predisposed to violent crimes in urban areas. Preliminary study of the regions also shows that the selected locations reflect the ecological transition and migratory belt from north-central to the south on the western axis of the country. Two states: Nasarawa and Kwara are located in the north-central geopolitical axis, while Ekiti and Oyo are in the south-west. Secondary host communities are generally defined as urban and sub-urban township areas across the country, which receive both environmental migrants and rural population motivated to move as a result of livelihood constriction, poor socio-economic conditions, and insecurity in rural areas.
22 The tension-prone interaction between nomadic and receiving communities, and a few address issues concerning the cases selected for this study. See for example: Iseyin/Shaki, Oyo State (Blench, 2003; Odoh and Chilaka, 2012), Oke-Ero in Kwara (Lamidi and Ogunkunle, 2015; Ofem and Bassey, 2014; Olabode and Ajibade, 2010); Efon-Alaaye, Ekiti State (Folami and Folami, 2013, Odoh and Chilaka, 2012; Taiwo, 2010); and Udeni- Gida in Nasarawa, Nasarawa state (Joseph, 2009; Odoh and Chilaka, 2012; Okoli and Atelhe, 2014).
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Densely populated proximal towns to core rural areas significantly provide migratory adaptation options depending on availability of opportunities for alternative means of livelihood which are related to the levels of urbanization and infrastructural development.
The proximal towns used are the nearest fairly urbanized areas to the rural study sites. They include: Efon Alaaye township, Oke-Ero township, Nasarawa township, and Saki township.
The relevance of the secondary host communities to this research is derived from the security implications of urban drift arising from resource contestations, livelihood decline and infrastructural deficits in the rural interiors.
The population group engaged in the secondary host communities were purposively selected and interview method was used to source information since questions specifically targeted population engaged in irregular and unskilled jobs—a typical occupation of rural farming population and migrants into cities and township areas. Specifically, commercial motorcycle operators, mobile shoemakers and other low or non-skilled workers in urban areas constitute a large percentage of this drifting category. Tape recorders and cameras were used to capture information which were wholly transcribed and then subjected to critical and objective analysis. Relevant data were obtained from government records, relevant journal and newspaper publications to capture environment-related rural-urban drift, and its probable connections with social crime and violence in the urban areas.
Although the study was conducted in communities which serve as host locations to short, and or long term peripatetic herdsmen, and which continue to experience resource contestations among the host and migrant group, the researcher selected mostly communities where such contestations or violent conflicts were not on-going at the time of the study. This was put into consideration in order to avoid tension and volatilities that may interrupt the research process or hamper its success. As established through interaction with community members in some of the locations, although resource contestations have continued, threats of escalation into communal violence were being curtailed through traditional structures of mediation such as the Local Council Farmers Associations (LCFAs). Olabode and Ajibade (2010) offer a timeline of conflicts between the predominant Fulani pastoralist and their host communities with much of the large scale violence occurring between 1999 and 2005. Besides, in order to alleviate the possibility of ethnic suspicion and hostility towards the interviewer by the interviewer, the researcher employed native Research Assistants/Interpreters from each tribe thus avoiding misunderstandings between research team and respondents.
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