Forced labour, in Northern Nigeria, can be traced to the colonial era in the country. Men, and sometimes women, were compelled to farm and cultivate cash crops in order to construct roads, offices, hospitals and mine materials for the British colonial officers. Between 1900 and 1960, colonizers and mining companies, such as Jantar Company and the Gold and Base Metals Mining Company (G.M.M.M) forced communities to work in northern mining regions.  The labourers worked under the supervision of the native police and Dogarai (palace guards). Those who deserted or tried to escape received punishments - 20 to 30 cane strokes and a small monetary fine - and, in some cases, faced a brief period of confinement. But with bandits now in control of vast swathes of rural North-West Nigeria, dynamics are evolving to provide them with the benefits of forced, and often unpaid, labour. The bandit groups initially forced residents to pay levies to access farms, plant, and harvest them. 

This paper looks at the growing impact of forced labour in the dimensions of conflict in the North-West.