Over one thousand conflicts have been resolved in Benue, Kaduna, and Zamfara states through community dialogue facilitators in the last five years by the NEEM Foundation with support from Karuna Centre for Peace Building under a special project tagged “Protecting Our Community Initiatives (POCI).”
Speaking in an interview with our correspondent during the interstate forum meeting with stakeholders in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, leaders of the organisations collaborating with NEEM Foundation for the peacebuilding initiatives, which include Dr Victoria Daaor of Elohim Development Foundation Benue, Hope for the Village Child in Kaduna, Sadiq Bako and Voluntary Aid Initiative in Zamfara, Musa Umar said they were able to resolve over 1000 conflicts through their dialogue facilitators.
They explained that the NEEM Foundation is a leading crisis response organisation committed to promoting the protection and well-being of populations in communities prone to crises.
According to them, “The inter-state dialogue forum in all our three states of focus is usually attended by members of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), security agencies, traditional leaders and the youths, where we appraise the successes of the protecting our community Initiatives and challenges encountered.”
In an interview with the Technical Adviser to the POCI project and representative of the Karuna Center for Peace Building, Iman Sani said the idea behind the project is to see how people can engage in dialogue to amicably resolve issues among themselves without resorting to violence or involving security agents.
Also, the executive director of Elohim Development Foundation (EDF) Benue State, Dr Daaor, informed that the conflict resolution initiative was successfully executed in six communities of Guma and Gwer West local governments where early warning and response committees made up of community members were set up to identify, report and resolve conflicts at the initial stage to avoid escalation.
Dr Daaor, who noted that POCI had built synergy among security agencies, community based organisations and the Benue Peace Commission, expressed optimism that the government would leverage the project’s successes by extending it to other local government areas.
Sharing his experience from Kaduna State, the programme manager of Hope for the Village Child, Bako, pointed out that the organisation collaborated with MACBAN, AFAN, traditional leaders, security agencies and the media to achieve positive results in conflict resolution and management and as well provide psycho-social support for traumatised victims in Kaduna State.
The executive director Voluntary Aid Initiative, Musa Umar from Zamfara, appealed to both the federal and state governments to key into the Protecting Our Community Initiatives peace building agenda by replicating its programmes.
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