A HUMAN SECURITY ANALYSIS OF LAND GRABBING AND RENAMING IN PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

This study critically analyses land grabbing and renaming as contemporary nature of insecurity affecting human security in Plateau State. Previously, scholars have conducted several studies on the nature of insecurity in Plateau State, but their focused have mainly been on the ethno-religious conflicts, resource-based attacks, and political induced violence. There are limited scholarly works that have factored the excruciating pain that comes with land grabbing, and worst of all renaming people’s very own lands that have been as old as their ancestors. The main study’s objective is to examine how land grabbing and renaming affect human security of the displaced communities whose lands have been grabbed and renamed. The study adopted human security theory as theoretical framework to shift focus from state-centric defence of the state space to the ‘freedom from want and fear’ of individuals whose sources of livelihoods have been forcefully taken away from them thereby deteriorating their human security. In order to analyse the lived experiences of the grabbed and renamed communities, the study employed interpretivist qualitative methodology. Both primary and secondary sources of data were explored, the primary data was obtained from key informant interviews and focus group discussions conducted in 2025 across 13 communities in 6 LGAs. These purposive selected LGAs include Jos North, Bassa, Riyom, Barkin Ladi, Bokkos, and Mangu have the history and manifestation of displacements, land grabbing and renaming. Secondary sources were mainly sourced from security texts to triangulate data. Findings from the primary data revealed that over 50 villages have been displaced, occupied, and some renamed in Riyom LGA, and over 35 villages in Gashish district, Barkin Ladi displaced and occupied. One common example, is the grabbing and renaming Fass to Mahanga in Riyom LGA. The finding from the secondary source revealed that in the space of three years, land grabbing and renaming rose from 54 to 102 communities that is between 2018 and 2021. From the triangulated data, result shows that renaming known as toponymic is a tactical weapon and strategy employed by armed herder militias to erase or wipe off legal memory, identity and history of people. The study concludes that individuals are never free from fear and want when their personal values such as land which symbolises their identity, history and heritage are threatened or forcefully taken. The study recommends that Plateau State Government and State House of Assembly should immediately enact a Toponymic Integrity Law that nullifies every unauthorised land grabbing and renaming of communities since 2001, and reaffirm the original indigenous names to all land registries. This will not only bring psychological relief, but it will immediately heal the mental trauma of the displaced communities and will serve as the first step to their onward return to their ancestral homes.