Author: Marie-Therese Nanlong
The capacity of stakeholders in some conflict-prone communities in Plateau State have been built to deploy the skills of Alternative Dispute Resolution, ADR to address conflicts before they escalate to violence.
The stakeholders from Ruboi in Bokkos local government area, Murish in Mangu local government area as well as Kachin-Tissan, Ruku, Zargwok and Nghar in Barkin Ladi local government area underwent a weeklong training in Jos, the State capital as facilitated by the Centre for Conflict Reconciliation and Documentation, CCRD.
Addressing the people, the lead facilitator, Barr. Redzie Jugo who is an ADR expert urged the people to cast their minds back to the time the State was peaceful and recall the wonderful relationships that were built across ethnic, religious and other lines and contribute their quota to ensure the State is returned to the path of peaceful coexistence. He reminded them that it is only a peaceful environment that would guarantee a prosperous future for the next generation hence the need for them to work together to maintain the peace in their communities.
It would be recalled that the stated areas and many others have been plagued with persistent violent conflicts between herders and crop farmers who by extension are the Fulani and the natives of the respective communities.
To curb the trend, Jugo called on the stakeholders who were earlier trained on early warning signals and early response mechanisms to pay attention to the skills in ADR which he stressed have worked over time where they are effectively deployed, adding that even in their homes, they can use such skills to manage their families and the entire communities. He pointed out that there is no need for people in conflicts to always wait for the Police or the courts to settle their grievances when they can use ADR to address issues and get faster, positive results.
His words, “This is North East Regional Initiative, NERI initiative, in conjunction with CCRD. NERI is in the North East zone due to the Boko Haram insurrection but decided to expand to other parts of the country and are now in the North Central zone of Nigeria and Plateau State is one of the benefiting States. “It is important that we do not allow conflicts to escalate to violence hence the need to ensure that some of the leaders in these areas have ADR trainings. We understand that some of the times, the use of traditional dispute resolution mechanisms like the Police and the courts some time end in more rancor.
“We decided to train stakeholders especially the traditional, youths, religious, women leaders in these communities, to ensure that they deal with and resolve conflicts in community levels using tested methods which have worked over the years. “We hope they will take back and teach others what they have learnt. This training is useful even at domestic levels like families and communities. They are equipped with skills to be able to deal with issues especially as they relate to the farmer/herder conflicts before they escalate. They can also deploy the skills to deal with other conflicts that may arise as the result of ethnic, religion or whatever.”
However, he appealed to “those who want to take laws into their hands to rescind the decision and know that it is not right,” and called on the State to “do the necessary once there are warning signals so that issues don’t escalate and result in loss of lives and property.” Meanwhile, participants who expressed their expectations as well as fears for the training appealed for assistance in areas of mental health and psychosocial supports as they still live with trauma of the violence which occurred in the communities in the past.
