Monarchs, ministry set to end crisis in Nasarawa

The effort to rebuild the cohesion among the people is being spearheaded by Nasarawa State traditional institutions, in collaboration with the state Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters. It is a new deal brokered with the consensus of all ethnic groups to, once again, return them to the path of love which they all […]

The effort to rebuild the cohesion among the people is being spearheaded by Nasarawa State traditional institutions, in collaboration with the state Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters.
It is a new deal brokered with the consensus of all ethnic groups to, once again, return them to the path of love which they all took off from at the creation of Nasarawa from the old Plateau State.  
Over the years, the love which cemented relationships between the diverse ethnic groups has taken flight from state, setting the stage for bloody hostilities which heightened by 2012, and dragged on to 2013, leading to the ill-fated operation by security operatives to seal off a shrine and arrest Baba Alakyo, said to be the chief priest of Ombatse, a group of Eggon people.
The operatives were ambushed and 74 security personnel killed by suspected members of the Ombatse group, a government white paper on the report of an inquiry panel said recently. But Eggon leaders have since dismissed the report as an attempt to demonize the ethnic group and discredit its political leaders ahead of 2015.
Since then, much of the state has been choked by ethnic suspicion, worsened by political ambitions ahead of the 2015 elections.
Nasarawa State has 24 ethnic groups that comprise Alago, Arum, Agatu, Afo, Bassa, Buh, Eggon, Egbura, Fulani, Gade, Gbagyi and Gwandara. Others are Hausa, Jukun, Kantana, Kanuri, Koro, Kulere, Mada, Migli, Nyamkpa, Ninzam, Rindre and Tiv.
These groups spread across the 13 local government areas of Akwanga, Awe, Doma, Karu, Keana, Keffi, Kokona, Lafia, Nasarawa, Nasarawa-Eggon, Obi, Toto and Wamba.
Most of these ethnic groups have experienced one form of misunderstanding against one another, some of which ended in bloody hostilities. Much of Nasarawa, especially the southern areas, has not known peace in years now. But recent incidentsof bloody crisis, fuelled by ethnic hate, and perpetrated by armed groups have turned parts of the state into a battlefield.
The state has witnessed many ethnic crises. In 2003, barely six years after its creation as a state from the old Plateau, Nasarawa was hard hit by gun violence, waged between flourishing militias of two ethnic groups Bassa and Igbira in Toto Local Government Area, west of Nasarawa. Maimuna Joyce Katai, a serving female commissioner in the government of former Governor Abdullahi Adamu, was killed in the bloody crises that claimed dozens of lives, displaced thousands, and destroyed property worth millions of naira. It took a reinforcement of armed soldiers to quell disturbances there.
At the same period, Tiv, Fulani and Alago people engaged one another in months of fighting which began in Azara, but spilled into Awe. It was blamed on mercenaries who attacked those areas, until soldiers were sent there to stop the murderous campaign, which also claimed the life of a paramount ruler.
Gripped by the widespread ethnic hate and by extension, claimed more lives and property, Nasarawa became a place which has lost it all.
But the new initiative by the traditional rulers and the state Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs is trying to remove the stain and paint a new picture of the state.
At the helm of this peace initiative is the governor himself, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, according to the state Commissioner of Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mohammed Danazuma, who told Sunday Trust that peace remains top on the list of things the administration seeks to accomplish before the end of its tenure.  
Danazuma said the governor had provided the traditional institution with the root to take off on this new deal, in what recently saw second class and third class traditional rulers with new operational vehicles.
The governor, during a ceremony to hand them keys to the vehicles, said the royal fathers had been working tirelessly to ensure peaceful co-existence within the state.  
The Emir of Lafia, Alhaji Isa Mustapha Agwai I, is leading the traditional institution in the peace initiative. He is working with the Emir of Keffi, Emir of Nasarawa, Andoma of Doma, Aren Eggon, Osana of Keana, Emir of Awe, Oriye Rindri, Ohimege Opanda, Esu Karu, Osu Ajiri, Emir of Karshi, She Migili, Odyong Nyankpa, Emir of Azara, and Chun Mada. There are also Abaga Toni, Gomo Babye, Osuko of Obi, Gom Mama, Sarkin Loko, and Sangarin Kwandere.
The paramount rulers have blamed the inability of successive administrations in the state to implement white papers of previous panels of inquiry on hostilities that have hit the state in recent times.
A communiqué issued recently by the Emir of Lafia and chairman Nasarawa State Council of Traditional Rulers after a meeting of paramount rulers and representatives of emirates and chiefdoms in Lafia, indicted past governments for setting the stage for the insecurity the state is currently witnessing.
The meeting resolved that current efforts by the state government are commendable, especially in setting up inquiries into sundry violence in the state.
“The committee identified the lack of will by successive administrations in the state to implement approved recommendations on the reports of such panels, committees and commissions.  This seeming indifference of government to reprimand indicted persons, the meeting noted, is responsible for the cycle of violence and acts of criminality affecting the state.
“The meeting enjoined government to always muster the will to appropriately reprimand erring individuals and communities to deter them or other individuals, groups or communities from contemplating such heinous acts in future,” the communiqué said.
The communiqué said the meeting acknowledged that inter-ethnic relationships have been smeared by the cycle of violence the state has witnessed in recent times, but resolved that no effort should be spared to avert future occurrences.
“The meeting resolved that communities in the state should forgive one another for past transgressions and walk into a new dawn in peace, harmony, brotherhood and the spirit of good neighbourliness,” the communique stated.
To ensure sustainability of peace in the state, the meeting resolved to set up a 21-member steering committee to monitor trend in the state, the communiqué added.
Following this, the Council of Traditional Rulers set up a peace and reconciliation committee, which is expected to make recommendations which the traditional rulers are urging the state government to implement in full to heal the wounds that had been inflicted upon communities via the killings.