ABSTRACT This conceptual review examines institutional parameters that underpin farmer–herder conflicts in Tivland of Benue State, Nigeria. Anchored on the theory of New Institutionalism, it argues that tensions and conflicts between Tiv-farmers and the Fulani-herdsmen is occasioned largely by the disarticulation of the traditional institutional norms/rules of interaction by formal political institutions expressed in land use laws, West African sub-regional protocol, human rights provision of the Nigerian constitution and the Benue State law on anti-grazing. In these contrasting institutional forms, the formal political institution is prioritised by the state while farmers and herders are divided about the institutional basis of their coexistence. Farmers who host the herdsmen demonstrate preference for traditional norms of land ownership and control while the herdsmen incline towards new political/legal instruments which they interpret, purports to give them access to grazing lands and hence an alibi for rejecting institutions that contradict their claim to access spaces for pastoralism. Thus, persisting claims to the exercise of rights to freedom of movement and access to grazing land as opposed to claims to traditional rights of ownership and control of ancestral lands explain the origin and continuity of the farmer–herder conflicts in Benue state, Nigeria.

中文翻译：

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影响尼日利亚贝努埃州蒂夫兰农牧冲突的制度参数

摘要 本概念性审查考察了支持尼日利亚贝努埃州蒂夫兰农牧民冲突的制度参数。以新制度主义理论为基础，它认为 Tiv 农民和富拉尼牧民之间的紧张和冲突主要是由于正式政治制度在土地使用法中表达的传统制度规范/互动规则的脱节，西非次区域议定书、尼日利亚宪法的人权条款和贝努埃州反放牧法。在这些对比鲜明的制度形式中，国家优先考虑正式的政治制度，而农牧民共存的制度基础则存在分歧。接待牧民的农民表现出对土地所有权和控制权的传统规范的偏爱，而牧民则倾向于他们解释的新的政治/法律文书，旨在让他们获得牧场，因此拒绝与他们的权利主张相矛盾的机构畜牧业的空间。因此，与对祖传土地的传统所有权和控制权的主张相反，对行使自由迁徙权和获得牧场的权利的持续主张解释了尼日利亚贝努埃州农牧民冲突的起源和连续性。目的是让他们进入牧场，因此拒绝与他们声称获得畜牧业空间相矛盾的机构的托辞。因此，与对祖传土地的传统所有权和控制权的主张相反，对行使自由迁徙权和获得牧场的权利的持续主张解释了尼日利亚贝努埃州农牧民冲突的起源和连续性。目的是让他们进入牧场，因此拒绝与他们声称获得畜牧业空间相矛盾的机构的托辞。因此，与对祖传土地的传统所有权和控制权的主张相反，对行使自由迁徙权和获得牧场的权利的持续主张解释了尼日利亚贝努埃州农牧民冲突的起源和连续性。