Forgiveness, Justice, recipe for conflict resolution – stakeholders

Village Heads in Southern Kaduna have called for forgiveness among aggrieved persons as a solution to the recurring conflict in the area.

The traditional rulers, who made the call in separate submissions on Monday at Kafanchan, Kaduna state during a meeting organised by the Southern Kaduna Joint Peace Committee (SKJPC), also stressed the need to ensure justice

The meeting was held in collaboration with Nigeria Early Recovery Initiative (NERI), a unit of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Malam Danladi Maigari, the village head of Fori, said lack of justice was responsible for the incessant herders-farmers conflict in the area.

“There can only be peace and unity when there is fairness and inclusiveness, but a situation where some people are treated as sons of the land and others are not, is not the best,’’ Maigari said.

He said that the search for peace could not be a one day talk shop, but through constant and sustained effort.

On his part, the village head of Bondong, Jonathan Mamman, said the only way for the persistent conflict to be resolved, was for warring parties to genuinely forgive one another and embrace dialogue.

Mamman stated that warring parties might find it difficult to forgive if they continued to focus on the pains and losses incurred during clashes.

Earlier, the Co-chairman of SKJPC, Dr Ahmed Yandeh, said the meeting was convened to identify conflict triggers and chart a way forward as herders began their southward seasonal movement.

Yandeh said that the village heads were better placed to proffer solutions to the lingering problem as they were the closest to the people at the grassroots.

Other village heads who spoke, solicited for understanding and cooperation from security agencies in performing their role as grassroots mediators.

Mrs Omokide Chikodi, Programme Manager of NERI, said engaging community leaders could minimise conflicts that occurred seasonally due to pastoralist migration.

Chikodi appealed to the community leaders to embrace interest-based negotiations in resolving herders-farmers conflicts that might arise during migration period.

“We have to understand that climate change issues regularly precipitate migration of pastoralists.

“So, if these community leaders are not brought together to talk, we foresee a situation where there will be huge destruction of farmlands,’’ she said

Supreme reports that SKJPC was constituted at the end of the Southern Kaduna Peace Summit in 2020, with a mandate to ensure sustainable peace in all communities.