President Muhammadu Buhari said Monday in Abuja that poverty, injustice
and the lack of job opportunities were mainly responsible for
inter-communal and intra-communal conflicts in Nigeria.
Speaking while receiving a delegation from the Centre for Humanitarian
Dialogue, an organization active in the promotion of peace in Nigeria,
President Buhari said that to achieve enduring peace in the country,
greater effort must be made to eradicate poverty and injustice.
The President described ethnic and religious conflicts in parts of the
country as outward manifestations of underlying problems of joblessness,
injustice and poverty.
On conflicts between farmers and herdsmen, President Buhari said that a
plan to map out grazing areas will soon be presented to the Nigerian
Governors Forum as a temporary solution to the frequent conflicts until
cattle owners are persuaded to adopt other means of rearing their cattle.
The President commended the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue for the
relative peace that had returned to Plateau State as well as their
on-going activity in Southern Kaduna.
He agreed with the Centre that dialogue was always preferable to the use
of law and order mechanisms and force in the resolution of conflicts.
The Executive Director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, David
Harland 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 can soon be deployed to deal with the Boko Haram insurgency
and other conflicts in Nigeria.