NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF FULANI HERDSMEN AND FARMERS IN OYO STATE

1.1 Introduction

Farmland and grazing route encroachment readily incite clashes between pastoralists and farmers in Nigeria. Farmers confront herders when cattle stray into their farmlands and destroy their crops. Newspaper coverage of conflict is pervasive, the media tend to be selective in their reportage of conflict. The conflicts between herdsmen and farmers have been on for decades in Nigeria (Olayoku, 2014). The media have become pervasive influencing attitude, culture and behavior through framing, presentation and representation of our common experiences. For a conflict situation to be newsworthy, the media first consider the prominence, status or importance of conflicting parties or issues at hand in relation to what the audience care about (Reuben, 2009).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Herdsmen feel aggrieved when they discover that portions of land that had hitherto served them as grazing routes have been taken over by farmers for cultivation. As a nomadic group, Fulani herdsmen are outsiders in any farming community they temporarily settle. Hence, they are considered the “landless group” by the community farmers (the “landed group”) who claim the right to land use and ownership (Shettima & Tar, 2008).

The upsurge between herdsmen and famers in various parts of the country is a good example of conflict in the society. Conflict between herdsmen and farmers in some sensitive parts of the country has raised different issues. Conflict between farmers and nomadic cattle herders have also been a common feature of economic livelihood in West Africa, (Tori, 2000). This is becoming a serious crisis. It is now second to Boko Haram security issue in Nigeria.

Historically, the Nigeria perspective of herdsmen and farmers crisis takes root from the global scope in Africa. According to Ofuoku (2010), in the period before the beginning of 20th century, such problems were mainly restricted to the savanna belts of West Africa. Cattle rearing where mainly prevalent in these belts: Guinea, Sudan and Sahel Savanna where crop production was carried out according to short raining season and small scale.

Ahmed-Gamgum (2018) aver that the current and most serious version of insecurity challenge facing Nigeria today is the instigation of farmers-herdsmen violent. The major effect of the conflicts are food and livestock shortages , food price increase, lost in revenue, and income, thousands of lives and household properties, cattle routes, demarcated grazing reserves farm land and towns infrastructures are frequently destroyed and or denied access.

Ofuoku, (2010) observed that cattle herders got the opportunity of having available farm land or grazing land to themselves. As time went on, and with the introduction of irrigation practice in the Savanna belt of Nigeria, and during dry season when pasture wither and unavailable to cattle herders, the herds men move down site (coastal zone) were raining is longer and soil retain moisture for long, in search of pasture and water – a movement called transhumance. However, Shehu (2017) pointed that Fulani as a tribe is known with the business of cattle rearing. Notwithstanding this fact, a number of Nigerians and even foreigners are also found in cattle rearing. Those vulnerable to herdsmen attacks seem to condemn the entire tribe of Fulani incognizant of the innocence of the majority. Fulani herdsmen have been labeled by some Nigeria’s newspapers with various frames as a result of their clash with their farmers counterparts in Nigeria.

According to Shehu (2017), average Fulani-herdsman, cattle rearing are a way of living, which is reckoned with as a mark of common heritage. In effect, any threat to his herd amounts to a threat, not only to his survival but also to his common destiny. This way of thinking is encapsulated in the following citation as credited to a Fulani-nomad.

The media especially the newspaper is always keen to report and investigate crisis event in any society. The newspaper is always at the center to connect man with the environment. As important as the media to events, the media shine when there is tension, crisis and war. Issues of war come from the human angle of news value. According to Adamu (2016), the media as an institution requires an understanding of what constitutes the sector. Clearly, the mass media consist of something beyond the specific outlets that deliver news and information moving forward.

The print media over the years have been integral part of democracy in the world and in Nigeria. According to Orhewere (2003), there are many genre of print medium which include newspaper, magazine, journal, and books. Newspaper is the most common genre of the print medium people read often which reflect all important news and provides information comments and guidelines that is most useful to its readers. It fully explains the meaning of local, national and international events which are significance to its own community by providing wise counsel in its editorial and become a public conscience. According to Nwosu (2003), a newspaper is a wholesome package of news, events, people and place in a given area and published on a predetermined frequency. This shows the level of importance of newspaper to the society.

Newspaper has been frequently used in political setting than any other sector. This assertion is equally true based on the historical development of Nigeria democracy and mass media (Sambe, 2008). Though, that era was marked by a lot of civil unrest in the country. Vanguard newspaper is published by Vanguard Media. It was established in 1993 by veteran journalist, Sam Amuka-Pemu with three friends. The newspaper has online edition. It sales about 120, 000 copies daily. First, the newspaper hit the news stand as a weekly newspaper. It aims is to serve the people through unflinching commitment to free enterprise, rule of law and good governance.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Newspaper Coverage of Fulani Herdsmen and Farmers in Oyo State.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Nigerian newspapers are established to report events in the society. The prevailing events are captured in the newspaper pages for the people to be updated with these happenings in the society. One of the major happenings in Nigeria is the case of incessant clashes between Fulani herdsmen and local famers. These clashes had happen in different parts of the country and had attracted the attention of government stakeholders as well as the press.

As Fulani/ famers crisis escalates, the newspaper pages have carried these stories for the people to know what is happen and who is involve and how the crisis had happened. However, there are unanswered questions which the research wants to provide. These questions cover the prominence, pattern, direction and nature at which Nigeria newspaper cover Fulani/Farmers crisis.

In giving answers to the questions the research method that shall be adopted is the content analysis. The coverage of this research shall be for six (6) months; from January to December 2018. In calculation, there are three sixty-five (365) publications of the Vanguard newspaper.

Therefore, the study seek to investigate the prominence, nature, frequency, magnitude and the direction of Nigeria newspaper reports on Fulani herdsmen and local farmers in Nigeria. The study will close knowledge gap from the analysis on the contents of the newspaper base on above points.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to investigate the Newspaper Coverage of Fulani Herdsmen and Farmers in Oyo State. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To determine the prominence of newspaper coverage of Fulani herdsmen and farmers crisis in Vanguard Newspaper coverage.
2. To find out the nature of coverage of newspaper on Fulani herdsmen and farmers crisis in Vanguard Newspaper coverage.
3. To determine the type of report of newspaper on Fulani herdsmen and farmers crisis in Vanguard Newspaper coverage.
4. To ascertain the direction of newspaper coverage on Fulani herdsmen and farmers crisis in Vanguard Newspaper coverage.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• What is the prominence of newspaper coverage of Fulani herdsmen and farmers crisis in Vanguard newspaper coverage?
• What is the nature of coverage of newspaper on Fulani herdsmen and farmers crisis in Vanguard newspaper coverage?
• What is the type of report of newspaper on Fulani herdsmen and farmers crisis in Vanguard newspaper coverage?
• What is the direction of newspaper coverage on Fulani herdsmen and farmers crisis in Vanguard newspaper coverage?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: Newspapers do not give low prominence in their coverage of displaced farmers in the herdsmen–farmers conflict in Oyo State
• H1: Newspapers gives low prominence in their coverage of displaced farmers in the herdsmen–farmers conflict in Oyo State

Hypothesis Two

• H0: There is no significant factor inhibiting newspaper coverage of fulani herdsmen and farmers in Oyo State
• H1: There is a significant factor inhibiting newspaper coverage of fulani herdsmen and farmers in Oyo State

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1.7 Significance of Study

The issue of Fulani herdsmen and farmers crisis in Nigeria is becoming a great concern to everybody including government institutions, civic society and the media. Hence, the result of these findings shall benefit the followings:

1. The newspaper organizations
2. Government at all levels
3. Civil Society

The newspaper organization shall benefit from the study because the result will better position the newspapers to know areas they have perform below belt and seek for new ways to improve their coverage by maintaining media professionalism.

The government on their part will use the findings to seek for possible way to quench this crisis as well as apportion social and legal rights and privileges to the parts involved in the crisis. The civic society shall benefit from this study because the result will make them understand the federal character and unity in diversity.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The study focuses on the Newspaper coverage of fulani herdsmen and farmers in Oyo State. The study is on newspaper coverage of Fulani herdsmen and local farmers in Nigeria. The scope of the study shall be limited to two notable newspapers in Nigerian. These are Vanguard newspaper and the Guardian newspaper.

Thus, the period for this study is one year. This covers January to D ecember 2018. The scope shall further focus on the prominence, nature, pattern and direction of the coverage of newspaper on Fulani/Farmer crisis in Nigeria.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

Newspaper: This is a genre of the mass media that report events, people, and place in form of paper to the readers. It appears daily and circulates to all parts of the country.

Coverage: This is the type of report of newspaper report. It is also called beat or report for a particular issue.

Conflict: This is disagreement between two or more parties over an issue field. It is could be misunderstanding of ideology.

Dimension: This is the angle or nature newspaper reports crisis that relate to Fulani herds men and local farmers in Nigeria.

Prominence: This is the amount of importance given to a particular new story on the page of the newspaper.