GOV. Umaru Al-Makura  of Nasarawa State on Tuesday declared open a three-day training workshop on peace-building and conflict management for local government officials, traditional rulers and other stakeholders in the state.

The training was organised by the Federal Government and Nasarawa State Government through the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution.

Represented by his deputy, Mr Silas Agara, Al-Makura said the timing of the training was apt, considering the intermittent communal disharmony, boundary disputes, as well as herdsmen and farmers crisis in the state.

He commended the institute for choosing the state for staging of the pilot phase of the peace building and conflict management project aimed at stemming the tide of the rising violent conflicts in parts of the country.

“It is my believe that this workshop will devise methodologies that would be in tune with local realities and beyond conventional conflict resolution mechanism to build the capacity of the target groups.

“The local government functionaries and community leaders are the closest to the people at the grassroots and require community based strategies to manage and resolve conflicts,’’ he said.

He noted that the concept of the workshop was in line with the state government’s initiative for conflict management.

“Since assumption of office in 2011, government adopted a community-based conflict resolution mechanism involving all stakeholders from communities, districts, local government and state levels in pre and post conflict management in our communities.

“This bottom-up broad based approach has continued to yield positive results in our quest to ensure peaceful and harmonious co-existence amongst the diverse ethnic nationalities in the state,’’ Al-Makura added.

Prof. Oshita Oshita, Director General of the institute, said the choice of Nasarawa State as pilot for the workshop was borne out of the persistence of the state government in ensuring peace.

Oshita said that the strategic conflict assessment conducted by the institute revealed that the state had great potentials for peace which must be exploited.

“This training will provide an opportunity to highlight some of the peace potentials and give the participants the skills needed to ensure peace in the state,” Oshita said.

He said the training would help to strengthen and consolidate peace building efforts initiated by the governor.

Oshita said the workshop would subsequently be held in Benue, Taraba and Kaduna states.

The Chairman of the state Traditional Council of chiefs and Emir of Lafia, Alhaji Mustapha Agwai, commended the organisers for putting up the programme at this time of insecurity across the country.

Agwai, who was represented by the ‘Oriye Rindre’ Alhaji Musa Nagogo, said the training would equip the traditional rulers with requisite skills and knowledge in peace building and managing conflicts in their various domains. (NAN)

Jul. 31, 2018 @ 16:45 GMT |