A nongovernmental organisation, the African Initiative for Peace Building Advocacy and Advancement (AFRIPEACE), has trained stakeholders towards restoring peace and harmony at the grassroots on the Plateau.
The AFRIPEACE training took place in Jos in collaboration with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) with participants drawn from civil organisations, community groups, ethnic, and religious groups.
According to Comfort Zawaya, the programme Manager of AFRIPEACE, “Nigeria is interweaving the toughest time in its political history. Security challenges, communal crisis, farmers/herders, kidnapping, insurgency, and other kinds of civil violence are presently ravaging Northern Nigeria.
“For over three decades, violent conflicts in Northern Nigeria have emerged with huge humanitarian consequences, including displacement of people which has resolved in huge deaths, loss of property across ethnic, religious and political devides.
“We are bringing together communities across religion, political and ethnic lines to work collaboratively in resolving crises”, she said.
According to her, AFRIPEACE is adopting the bottom-top approach where the communities themselves take ownership of the process of the conflict resolution or management.
One of the participants, Deacon Michael Nom, who is optimistic about the training, said if government would key into such initiative, it would go a long way in addressing challenges in the communities.
