The Middle Belt Brain Trust (MBBT) has called for empowerment of policymakers, government officials and local government chairmen in Plateau State with the tools to detect early warning signals and effective management of conflicts at the local government level, being the closest tier of governance to the people.
The call came as the organisation held a training on conflict-sensitivity in the state, starting with an engagement with local government heads and other top officials at that level.
Chairman of the MBBT, General Martin Luther Agwai, noted that development cannot thrive amidst chaos and anarchy, hence the need to maintain peace always.
He said it was incumbent on local government chairmen to ensure peace by providing the right leadership through equity, fairness and inclusivity because what is spent on maintaining peace is far less than what is spent to resolve conflicts.
Through rigorous training sessions, lectures by experts, group works, analyses, presentations by participants as well as assessment and critiques of presentations, the message on conflict sensitivity was passed at the training.
Using these tools, the local government chairmen were taught how to detect intergroup tensions, identify the divisive issues and how to connect issues to mitigate conflict and strengthen social cohesion.
They were also equipped with tools to understand how to analyse conflicts and maximise the opportunities while resolving the issues.
The director general of Plateau Peace Building Agency (PPBA), Julie Sanda, at the training extrapolated the concept, adding that it had shifted from the initial concept of ‘do no harm’ to initiating efforts for development.
She added that said why local government chairmen need to be conflict-sensitive was because their leadership directly impacts communities that have borne the brunt of violent conflicts.
A former vice chancellor of Veritas University, Prof Mike Kwanashie, defined conflict sensitivity as the deliberate, continual and systematic approach to ensuring policy makers and executors understand the risks in conflict interventions with a view to minimising it while maximising the opportunities.
He explained that once this is understood, the basic tools for preventing conflicts would have been established.
Our correspondent recalls that after using various approaches, even policy makers realised that equipping leaders at the grassroots could go a long way in preventing conflicts.
Within the last 10 years, all the local governments in Plateau State have come under various skirmishes and conflicts.
With the litany of conflicts in the past, many communities in Plateau State have been desirous of such interventions due to the frequency of conflicts in the state.
From the communal crises in the Southern senatorial zone in Plateau to the political turmoil in the North to the recent attacks in the central zone, all the local governments have experienced one form of crisis or the other.
The 2002 to 2004 Shendam crisis for instance saw the deployment of troops to the affected areas and subsequent declaration of a state of emergency in the state which culminated in the suspension of the then governor from office.
Between 2008 and 2010, the Plateau State government had to set up a commission of inquiry to establish the remote cause of the conflicts in Jos North and surrounding local governments.
Many witnesses testified that most of the conflicts started from perceived injustices and lack of fairness on the part of the leadership at various levels.
A journalist who covered the sitting of the panel of inquiries into the 2008 Jos crisis, Nankpa Bwakan, said the bulk of the blame for not nipping the crises in the bud was placed on the doors of wards and local government authorities.
He said, “Unlike state government officials that reside at the state capitals, the local government officials chairmen and their top official live in the communities so they get to know the cause of the problems first hand and how to solve them.”
Various bodies have pointed out that to avoid escalation of crises the authorities at the grassroots level must be made to understand the role of conflict-sensitivity concepts as it would help in the course of administration to prevent crises.
Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang agreed with this, saying one way to minimise conflicts is through dialogue and collaboration while leaders must be perceived to be fair, honest, just, and equitable.
He said once people discover that what you are bringing to the table is a sense of fairness and equity, there’s less chance that there will be conflict.
This underscores what peace and conflict experts have harped upon by insisting that policies, programmes, projects, activities of local government authorities must be carried out in ways that minimise harm.
That the local government authorities need to be sufficiently equipped therefore became imperative and it formed part of the recommendations of the various peace efforts in Plateau State.
The participants say the challenges of mainstreaming conflict sensitivity in governance systems at that level is that it would require a pool of knowledge and skills which is not handy unless more personnel are trained to understand the issues.
“Making the local government authorities understand the dynamics of peace and conflict and to apply same in policy formulation, resource allocation, and community engagement takes time,” a participant said.
With the commencement of process for mainstreaming conflict sensitivity, it is expected that when fully achieved, the wave of conflicts in Plateau State would reduce.
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