INTERCULTURALITY

Herders–farmers conflict in Nigeria has transcended questions of land use, resource competition, and pastoralist migration to embrace broader discourses of religion, identity, and political control. "Employing the politics of epistemology as an analytical framework, it interrogated knowledge about herdersmen insurgency construction, circulated, and contested in the Nigerian public sphere, and how such narratives either sustain or undermine the possibility of an Islamisation agenda. Other perspectives situated the crisis within ecological degradation, population pressure, and governance failures; some interpreted it as part of a deliberate attempt at religious domination and cultural homogenisation, especially in the predominantly Christian regions of the Middle Belt and the South. This paper examined media reports, political speeches, policy documents, and literature between 2015 and 2024 to deconstruct the epistemic frames through which the insurgency is understood. Drawing on postcolonial theory and discourse analysis, the study highlighted how competing narratives of jihad, victimhood, national security, and communal survival interact with political agendas and historical grievances. The findings reveal that the "Islamisation thesis, though epistemically compelling, remains entangled with colonial legacies of land demarcation, elite manipulation of identity politics, and the instrumentalisation of religion for political legitimacy. It concludes that while the insurgency reflects deep structural contradictions in governance and resource management, framing it as an Islamisation agenda risks oversimplification and further polarisation. Rather than waiting for perfect conditions, we must develop knowledge systems that genuinely integrate security concerns with cultural diversity and commitment to living together with shared responsibility for future generations.

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