Abstract
Conflicts in Nigeria’s North-Central region have increasingly reflected recurring farmer-herder clashes, communal violence, and armed attacks amidst complex interaction between population growth, unhealthy inter-ethnic relations, governance challenges, and uneven development between urban and rural communities. These security challenges have significantly shaped livelihood systems and social relations. This paper is, therefore, focused on comparing how conflict dynamics manifest differently across settlement types within Nasarawa South Senatorial Zone, as well as leadership responses to the conflicts. This study adopted a qualitative comparative research design to examine leadership responses to security challenges in the South Senatorial Zone of Nasarawa State between 2011 and 2023. Anchored on a qualitative approach based on empirical analysis, the paper identifies land competition, resource scarcity, and identity politics as major drivers of conflict in the focal area. The paper also observes a clear urban-rural divide in conflict experience in the focal area with rural residents facing physical violence, displacement, food insecurity, and disruption of agricultural activities, while urban populations encountered socio-economic stress through migration pressures, weakened local economies, and declining social cohesion. More so, the paper notes that while Al-Makura's administration operated under conditions of severe ethnic mobilisation and adopted a more force-centered approach, Sule's administration confronted diffuse insecurity and relied more heavily on dialogue and institutional partnerships. The study concludes that conflicts in Nasarawa South Senatorial Zone were not isolated security events but structurally embedded crises shaped by governance gaps and competition over natural resources. It recommends integrated rural security frameworks, inclusive land-use policies, community-based peace-building mechanisms, and balanced urban-rural development strategies as pathways toward sustainable conflict mitigation and regional stability.