Posted on: 07:33 Mon, 25 Jan 2016



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.

Garba Shehu
SSA to the President
(Media & Publicity)
January 25, 2016