COFP Fellows Building Peace in their Communities

Persistent conflict between Herders and Farmers in Nigeria have become a thing of great concern in the recent years due to its disastrous nature in terms of loss of life, property and its negative impact on rural livelihoods. With the conflict transformation and dialogue skills acquired by the COFP Fellows who are also members of these warring communities during the Fellowship program, a lot of mediation and peacebuilding activities are already going on in some of these communities. For instance, the crises between the Fulani and Irigwe have been plagued by bloody clashes among farmers/herders which resulted in loss of lives and property. Situated in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State, the community lived in peace together with the Fulani herdsmen who were their neighbours until grazing rights and land boundaries set in. The killings became almost incessant as both adherents carried out attacks and reprisal attacks.

Earlier in 2018, the COFP Foundation called major stakeholders for a town-hall peace meeting and solicited them to put an end to the killings. Profound progress was made as both groups promised to bury the hatchet and live in peace. To sustain this effort, the COFP Fellows from this community have organized series of peace meetings and have gone as far as enacting a Peace Pact between the two communities. On Friday 26th July 2019, another meeting was held at Domus Pacies, Jos, Plateau state for reintegrating some Fulanis who left the area as a result of conflict.The COFP Pioneer Fellows from Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) and Irigwe Development Association (IDA); Umar Abdullahi, Ya’u Haruna, John Gana and Sunday Abdu were all present during the meeting and agreed to talk to their people to keep the peace agreement.

On a similar note, Jechonia Gilbert, one of the 2018/2019 Alumni Fellow organized a one-day summit on August 26-27,2019 at Yola South LGA on bridging community relationship between farmers, herders, and their respective traditional councils and to further increase the trust for continuous dialogue rather than confrontations which have sustained the. This event brought together faith and community leaders as well as local government officials from Dochochi, Bole-Lakare and Yoldo-Pate Wards of Yola South LGA of Adamawa State, North East Nigeria.