ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews ecological disasters, climate change, and its implications on rural violence in Nigeria, with a particular focus on the interlink between climate change, ecological disasters/crisis, and rural violence. The chapter uses secondary data from the Nigerian Watch database, and reviews relevant materials from books, journals, and the internet. The data were analysed and presented using descriptive statistics and maps. The chapter reviews ecological disasters and climate change in Nigeria, causes of ecological disasters, environmental and socio economic impact of climate change, and the consequences of ecological disasters in Nigeria, which include land degradation, aridity, poor production and desertification; climate variation (change); poor productivity, poor feed for animals, water scarcity, flooding, aridity, and health issues; forced migration leading to conflicts over scarce resources; productive land, fodder, water, and grazing land. The main causes of violence in Nigeria, general trends of violence (2006–2018), and how ecological disaster and climate change fuel rural violence in Nigeria were equally reviewed. The finding shows a link between desertification, soil erosion, farmer–header conflicts and rural banditry in Nigeria. Hence, the study suggests intensive afforestation of the country to help moderate the problem of climate change and ecological disasters, also farmers should be trained on the best farming practices for high yield and profitability and also to avoid soil erosion. Likewise, herders should be trained and educated to consider adopting cutting-edge technology for the rearing of their cows, equally, for high profitability and the safety of man and his environment, rather than moving about.
