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AUN spearheads Adamawa peace moves
Gloria Essien, Adamawa
A peace-building council, Community Peace Council, has been established in Adamawa State to restore communal harmony.
The council, a fresh initiative of the American University of Nigeria is a state government-backed body comprising of the leadership of various interest groups.
The path-breaking meeting was convened at the instance of the AUN board
chairman, Ahmed Joda and the University’s President Margee Ensign following last week’s unprecedented marring of the Adamawa State capital’s long standing reputation as a bastion of peace in Nigeria’s northeast.
In attendance were religious leaders, business men and government representatives across the state, representatives of the Lamido Adamawa, Jamatul Nasril Islam (JNI) as well as those of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). Others are representatives of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), State Security Service, Muslim-Christian Forum, the Muslim Council and the traders’ associations.
Violence denounced
These groups jointly denounced the violent attacks in the Adamawa towns of
Mubi and Jimeta, especially as the capital Yola has been known to be peaceful. They also called for the culprits to be brought to book.
They will emerge at this gathering with youth in their communities to express love, and share in each other’s concern.
Addressing reporters at the end of the meeting, the board chairman of AUN, Alhaji Joda, said the dialogue was set up by the university whose duty as a Development University is to help to solve the problems of the host community. “We conceived this idea less than 24 hours ago,” he said.
He explained that that the University consulted with stakeholders of the immediate society and found acceptance to form a meeting to discuss the circumstance
in which the society has found itself.
He said unlike AUN, most universities in Nigeria were isolated from the communities by reason of location, and observed that AUN was deeply concerned about the recent killings in the state.
“Most universities in Nigeria have been isolated and set up in virgin lands
away from the communities.“This university (AUN) was set up to
be a part of the community; this is why we are deeply concerned when
certain things disrupt the community,” he said.
AUN President, Margee Ensign said she received the news of the Adamawa violence with shock while in the United States. “I care deeply about this community and so we’re here at this table to contribute in any way that we can to this important country,” she said.
Challenges
She identified communication gap as one of the huge challenges that must be tackled in order to achieve peace among the people as communication gap allows rumours rule the day.
She urged the parties to confront key challenges with purpose even as the
American University of Nigeria was willing to partner in making Yola a safe
place. In her words “One of the ways we can contribute is by being a broker.
We are here to ensure that Yola is a safe place where people can find
peace, and have respect for one another.”
The parties pointed out that unemployment, poverty, inadequate security, depletion of cultural values, unchecked movement of persons via the border posts, political divisions and lack of information, were the major causes of communal clashes.
Mallam Gambo Jika of JNI was of the opinion that the perpetrators of the
crime were neither Christians nor Muslims within the Adamawa region.
He said: “No religion in Nigeria would accept the violence as we have been living together and even inter-marry.”
Chief Paul Ogbonna urged Nigerians to unite, stressing that “the more we come
together to know ourselves, the better.”
The State Chairman of the CAN, Bishop Stephen Mamza said the sheer size of Nigeria was no reason to complain about the difficulties and problems facing the nation. “Our country is large but we cannot say because it’s large, we cannot solve our problems.”
The groups called on the police and other security agencies to urgently dig deep into the remote cause(s) of the violence that may have sent wrong signals about the people in the state.
Mr R. M. Haladu of the NPF said the force was concerned with intelligence gathered from the community but lamented the attitude of the people toward giving vital information to enable them to act decisively.
At the end of the meeting, the groups condemned the killings in the state and other parts of the federation and pledged to work together to build a more peaceful community based on trust and understanding.
The Peace Council will meet again on Saturday, January 14, to discuss further on ways to broker peace among the people in the community.
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