Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire.
By Marie-Therese Nanlong
Jos – Victims and communities attacked by bandits in Plateau state have appealed for assistance in areas of mental health and psychosocial support.
Victims and members of the affected communities said they still live with trauma of the violence attacks on their households.
Victims of the violence comprising herders and farmers spoke in Jos, at a weeklong capacity training on the use of alternative disputes resolution, ADR, mechanism in resolving grievances.
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The training is facilitated by the Centre for Conflict Reconciliation and Documentation, CCRD, with support from North East Regional Initiative, NERI, drew participants 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.
The areas have witnessed persistent violent conflicts between herders and crop farmers.
Speaking, a ADR expert, Barr. Redzie Jugo emphasised the need for parties in conflicts to deploy the skills in ADR to resolve conflict before they escalate to violence.
Jugo urged participants at the training 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 ensuring that the State returns 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 stakeholders to work together to maintain peace in their communities.
A cross section of participants at a weeklong capacity training on use of Alternative Disputes Resolution, mechanism in conflict resolution in Jos, Plateau State, organised by CCRD and NERI.
To curb violence, Jugo called on the participants who were earlier trained on early warning signals and early response mechanisms to violence 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.
Jugo said, “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.”
