Beyond Hoes and Sticks: The Power of Education for Peace in Arewa
My nine year old son Muhammadu Buhari in his poem titled ‘Arewa’ has a verse that reads ‘Let the child with the stick be given a pen, and the one with the hoe be given a keyboard. Only then can we guarantee a secure future.’
This wit filled axiom this poetic lad captures the metaphor of Northern Nigeria, once a wall map of seasonal rhythms herders following ancient migratory paths, farmers coaxing crops from the soil has increasingly become a patchwork of displacement camps and abandoned fields. What was once coexistence has curdled into hostility. Clashes between pastoralists and farmers have escalated in frequency and ferocity. Banditry, ethno-religious tensions and insurgent violence compound the chaos. In this theatre of protracted insecurity, access to arable land and markets is dwindling, and food systems are collapsing. But as grim as the picture appears, one solution remains persistently overlooked , it is education.
At the heart of the conflict lies a mutual exclusion from opportunity. The Fulani boy reared for cattle-trailing lacks access to even basic literacy. The farming child, trained only in subsistence tools, is equally cut off from the digital economy. Sadly,illiteracy and isolation breed suspicion; ignorance calcifies into enmity. Education, if equitably and contextually delivered, offers not only a pathway out of poverty, but a bulwark against violence.
The statistics are sobering. According to Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics, the literacy rate in the north-west hovers below 40%, and drops further in rural and nomadic populations. The United Nations notes that over 10 million Nigerian children are out of school—many of them in conflict-affected northern states like Zamfara, Sokoto, Borno and Yobe. Meanwhile, agriculture still employs nearly 70% of the Nigerian workforce, yet contributes just a quarter of GDP. This productivity gap is explained in part by low mechanisation, limited market access, climate change and weak digital integration—all of which trace back to education.
A reconfiguration of the rural education model is overdue and Mr Alausa Tunji, the education minister must look into this starring reality.
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Start with mobile, modular schooling for nomads. The National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE), though well-intentioned, remains underfunded and underutilised. Investing in mobile classrooms, solar-powered learning kits and multilingual instruction tailored to pastoralist life would reduce dropout rates and improve civic awareness among herders. Digital livestock management tools some already in pilot use in East Africa—can be integrated into curricula, making the lessons immediately applicable.
For farming communities, the case is for agri-digital literacy. Mobile-based extension services, satellite weather data, and market platforms have shown promise in Kenya and Ghana. Nigerian smallholders, especially in the north, have yet to benefit meaningfully. Training youth in these areas to use mobile apps for crop pricing, input financing, and irrigation scheduling could lift yields and reduce reliance on exploitative middlemen.
Conflict resolution must be taught as deliberately as arithmetic. Formal curricula in volatile zones should include civic education, land-use rights, and peaceful negotiation techniques. Community learning centres could function as shared spaces for both pastoral and agrarian populations—offering vocational training, mediation services and digital access points.
Crucially, girls’ education deserves specific mention. A UNESCO study shows that educated women are more likely to delay marriage, vaccinate children, and participate in civic life. In regions where Boko Haram and other extremists have targeted schools, restoring confidence in girls’ education will require both security guarantees and targeted incentives such as conditional cash transfers as witnessed during the late President Muhammadu Buhari ‘s administration.
Development agencies and governments alike must treat education not merely as social policy, but as economic infrastructure. Roads and silos will fail to deliver results if minds remain closed. The African Development Bank and Nigeria’s TETFund should prioritise technology-enabled education projects in conflict zones, complementing their physical infrastructure investments.
The promise of the AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) and Nigeria’s own National Digital Economy Policy will remain hollow slogans unless rural producers both herders and farmers can be linked to markets and ideas. Education is the prerequisite for that linkage.
Like Nigeria ‘s Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa once opined, ‘Peace will not emerge from military deployments alone.’ It must be cultivated through literacy, connectivity and inclusion. In the long run, the stick and the hoe will not disappear, but they must be reimagined—not as tools of survival, but as symbols of heritage made viable through knowledge.
Give the child with the stick a pen, and the one with the hoe a keyboard—and watch a fractured region sow the seeds of a different future.
Educationaly musing
Abdullahi O Haruna Haruspice
