By Tina George, Minna
In a bid to resolve the internal crisis bedevilling Niger state, community, religious and traditional leaders in Mashegu local government area of the state, have been engaged in peace dialogue.
The Peace Dialogue, which is facilitated by the Center for Democracy and Development, CDD, will address the prevailing internal crisis which has been recurring in the local government area.
The Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Internal Security, Emmanuel Umar said that the dialogue is part of the government’s effort towards using the non-kinetic approach to find solutions and build resilience towards countering every form of violence and community clashes.
“We want them to understand that they need peace because it is only peace that can bring development as development comes with peace.”
He stated that the area was chosen because of its recent internal crisis and peculiar issues that had brought accusations and counter-accusations between communities.
“We are using Mashegu as a pilot programme towards using non-kinetic, approach in building peace. Most times, when we talk about enforcement of peace, we talk about the military or security approach which is the hard approach but when people are gotten to get buy-in into the system, they can solve their problem.”
Umar stated that the government is exploring a non-kinetic approach as it is seen to have worked in other countries, “after this dialogue, the community leaders would be appointed as ambassadors of peace in their communities. We are very optimistic that a non-kinetic approach will solve the internal security crisis in the local government area.”
The Commissioner stated that the government would engage community leaders in other local government areas adding that various approaches have been earmarked to be employed in other local government areas.
“We are understanding the problems and we will proffer solution based on tailored solutions towards addressing the issue in our approach towards the Insecurity bedevilling the communities. We will use the best approaches to resolve the security problems we are facing”, he said.
The facilitator of the dialogue, Dr Mutala Rufai said that the peace dialogue will go a long way to foster a better understanding of resolving conflicts between communities and individuals.
He stated that security agencies in Nigeria were grossly inadequate to combat the various conflicts across the country, adding that if the country continued to use them to fight the war against terrorism, they will become exhausted which could be disastrous.
Rufai stated that the participants would be abreast with the non-kinetic means of resolving conflicts at the end of the peace dialogue.
