From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
In an effort to promote and enhance conflict resolution and management in the society, the British Council in partnership with Development and Peace Initiative Kaduna has organized a four-day workshop on conflict Management and peace promotion for communities of Wusasa, and Tudun-Wada in Zaria local government area of Kaduna State.
The workshop, known as Nigeria Stability Reconciliation Programme, is aimed at creating necessary awareness to handle any conflict. Speaking at the commencement of the workshop in Zaria, the coordinator, Development and Peace initiative Kaduna (DEPIKAD), Rev. Father Clement Bamaiyi Kajoma explained that the participants comprising of Christian- Muslim Clerics, representatives of Jama’atul NasriI Islam (JNI) and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), community leaders and the security personnel drawn from Wusasa, and Tudun-Wada were carefully selected, in cognizance of the fact that the communities are crisis prone areas.
The coordinator further said the Workshop will enable the inauguration of the community peace partnership Committee who will be intensively trained on conflict resolution, early detection of warning signs and how to negotiate and handle it before it escalates to crisis.
Rev. Father Kagoma therefore, charged the participants to redouble commitment and ensure full implementation of the knowledge gained at the workshop with the view to ensuring permanent peace, security and mutual coexistence among diverse people of the areas.
Also speaking, the facilitator of the workshop from the British Council, Rev Sister Rita Swaza Benga said the workshop focused on areas that include raising awareness on the people, how to negotiate on agreeable solutions to conflict before it escalate to crisis.
Sister Benga said the topic of the workshop was necessary in Nigeria bearing in mind that a lot of differences always lead to violence, hence the need to analyze possible ways of conflict and the way it should be handled in order not to lead to violence.
