Nasarawa State Government says it is partnering the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to come up with best options to resolve the unabated herders/farmers’ conflicts in the state.
The partnership which became imperative considering the multifaceted security challenges bedevilling the state was designed to equip the security agencies on early warning and response strategies.
The Conflict Early Warning and Early Response System (C-EWERS) is a component of a broader project, an integrated approach to building peace in Nigeria’s herders-farmers’ conflict.
Other development partners involved in this initiative are the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and United Nations Women.
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At a sensitisation workshop in Lafia, Nasarawa State capital, where relevant stakeholders in peace building were in attendance, the state governor, Abdullahi Sule, said his administration was ready to establish the State Peace Building Agency, which would be repository for the kind of support the government needs in times of conflict.
The governor, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Development Partners, Munirat Abdullahi, called on the security agencies to be more strategic and proactive on issues constituting threat to lives.
“The several components of the project include a proposed Peace Building Agency in Nasarawa State that would harness and consolidate the knowledge gathered through engagements with the traditional institutions, civil society, local, state and federal governments as well as our international partners,” Sule said.
“The UNDP is the UN’s Global Development Network. It seeks to promote technical investment cooperation among nations, and advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life for themselves.
“We are assured that with all of the programmes that we have laid out, the processes involved in ensuring that early warning and early response will stem such conflicts before they even erupt.
“This programme is one of such engagements that serves as a follow up to series of high-level dialogues held between the UN and representatives across traditional institutions, religious organisations, security agencies, government officials including the executive, legislative and judiciary and other civil society organizations in the state,” he stated.
One of the participants, Adamu Adi Giza, chairman of Keana Local Government Area, commended the state government for the initiative and quick response to security matters.
“Being the chief executive, when we were confronted with problem in my local government, I quickly drew the attention of the governor and what needed to be done was to provide security immediately,” Giza said.
According to him, the governor’s quick response by providing adequate security has aided in subsiding crisis in Keana.
