North needs enlightenment on conflict reduction -Bauchi SSG

From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

The Secretary to the Bauchi State Government (SSG), Alhaji Mahmud Maijama’a, has stressed the need for people in the Northern part of the country to be adequately enlightened in order to reduce conflicts resulting from crave for personal interests among them.

Alhaji Maijama’a expressed the belief that such conflicts are coming to achieve personal interests which probably are not good for development and growth.

“The northern part of the country is having a lot of problems in terms of conflict and we need to educate people; I believe that the conflicts are coming mainly to achieve some personal interests, which is not good for development”, he said.

The Bauchi chief scribe, in an interactive session with Arewa Youth Forum (AYF), a Non-governmental organization on: ‘Conflict Mitigation and Peace Building’, held in Bauchi at the weekend, assured the forum members of the state government’s full support in the drive for peaceful co-existence and development in communities of the state.

The SSG, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry for Budget and Planning, Mohammed Aminu Ibrahim, expressed delight that AYF has realized diversity in communities, which he said, could be used as strength rather than weakness in any given community.

Alhaji Maijama’a told the organization that Bauchi state government is proactive on any issue relating to development partners coming to the state, and assured the AYF of necessary logistics assistance in the efforts to mitigate conflicts among people in communities across the state.

The AYF Project Manager, Mr. Abdiel Kude had earlier said that the conflict mitigation and peace building project designed by his organization will be executed in 4 states of Bauchi, Kaduna, Taraba and Nasarawa, in partnership with the US embassy in Nigeria.

He explained that the pilot phase of the project, which will kick-off next month, with the training of 48 facilitators from the 4 states in Bauchi has the sole objective of engaging communities in on-going dialogues to address critical foundations of community life.

The AYF project delegation similarly paid advocacy visits to the offices of Bauchi state chairman of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), Alhaji Bala Ibrahim Sani, and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Bauchi, where it was received by the state’s secretary, reverend Vincent Bature.