How Fulani, Irigwe can have peace — Miyetti Allah

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) Plateau State Chapter has said for peace to reign between the Fulani people and the Irigwe community in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State, mutual trust and respect must be developed as well as working on  long term commitments that underlies the cause of the conflicts.

In a statement signed by its Chairman, Muhammad Nuru Abdullahi and the Secretary, Abdullahi Ardo, MACBAN said peace building is not something that can be achieved at a single event or by signing a peace accord alone, but should be an ongoing process of developing relationships of mutual understanding. 

The statement said among the challenges faced by the Fulani community in Irigwe which needed to be addressed to breed peace is that they are not allowed to graze freely, their people and cattle are secretly killed and that they have no access to water points. Others challenges are that their farmlands initially bought from the Irigwe people have been confiscicated and most stock routes have been blocked. 

It further explains that although conflict is inevitable, the Fulani people believe that the task of sustainable peace building and conflict prevention can only thrive on the values of fairness, equity and justice, adding that the Fulanis believe in the sanctity of human dignity and that all human beings are equal and deserve to be respected irrespective of their race, ethnicity and religious ideology.

It added that to resolve the conflict, there should be a shift away from the way the both communities deal with their differences to formulating a cooperative probleblem-solving initiative that would enable both parties to communicate and have accurate information about each other, and in effect attack their collective problems and not each other.