Frustration–Aggression Nexus in Framing the Expanding Banditry Economy in Northwest Nigeria: Evidence From Communal-Level Perception in Zamfara State, 2011–2024

Abstract

Recent studies on armed banditry in Zamfara have commented on climate change, weak security infrastructure, and setbacks in socio-economic developments. The communal-level issues in the threat such as farmland allocation, vigilantism, and local intelligence provision have largely remained understudied. This study exploits the gap to explain armed banditry. A mixed method of data collection and qualitative descriptive method of data analysis were adopted. Using frustration–aggression analysis as explanatory tool, the paper concludes that wholesale farmland transaction, rudimentary communal vigilantism, and bandits’ concealed alliance formation with some traditional leaders for intelligence and benefits sharing are key factors that aided banditry. Tackling these three basic communal-level banditry nuances requires absolute political will to re-assess and implement the extant policies on grazing reserves and pastoralist mobility.