Poverty, injustice, unemployment cause of conflicts in Nigeria -Buhari

To achieve enduring peace in Nigeria, greater effort must be made to eradicate poverty and injustice, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Monday.

Buhari identified poverty, injustice and lack of job opportunities as the cause of inter-communal and intra-communal conflicts in Nigeria.

Speaking while receiving a delegation from the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, an organisation active in the promotion of peace in Nigeria, the President described ethnic and religious conflicts in parts of the country as outward manifestations of underlying problems of joblessness, injustice and poverty.

On the conflicts between farmers and herdsmen, the President said that a plan to map out grazing areas would soon be presented to the Nigerian Governors Forum as a temporary solution to the frequent conflicts until cattle owners were persuaded to adopt other means of rearing their cattle.

The President commended the Centre for the relative peace that had returned to Plateau State as well as their ongoing activities in Southern Kaduna.

According to a statement by Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the President on media and publicity, President Buhari agreed with the Centre that dialogue was always preferable to the use of law and order mechanisms, and force in the resolution of conflicts.

David Harland, executive director, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, told President Buhari that following their success in facilitating the settlement of the inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflicts in Plateau State, the group had moved to Kaduna State.

He expressed the hope that the techniques used in bringing peace to Plateau State could soon be deployed to deal with the Boko Haram insurgency and other conflicts in Nigeria.