President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday identified poverty, injustice and unemployment as the major causes of inter-communal and intra-communal conflicts in Nigeria.
According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the President spoke while receiving a delegation from the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.
Delegation of the organisation said to be active in the promotion of peace in Nigeria visited the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Buhari was quoted to have said that to achieve enduring peace in the country, greater effort must be made to eradicate poverty and injustice.
The statement read in part, “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 also 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 reportedly told 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.
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