By Marie-Therese Nanlong

Stakeholders in Plateau State have identified continued dialogue, forgiveness, and tolerance as factors that would engender peaceful coexistence in communities in the State.

The stakeholders, at an inter-religious peace and reconciliation meeting, tagged: “Towards promoting peace and security in Plateau State,” organized by the Gideon and Funmi Para-Mallam Peace Foundation in partnership with the British High Commission, insisted on the need for citizens to ensure peace for development.

The event drew participants from the six local government areas of Plateau North Senatorial zone: Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Jos East, Jos North, Jos South, and Riyom, including religious, traditional, community leaders as well as women and youths from the two major religions in the country. 

Speaking at the event, the Commander, Operation Safe Haven, OpSH, Major General Ibrahim Ali stated peace is non-negotiable hence there is a need for continuous dialogue, especially among the affected communities.

His words, “You must agree on something, dialogue is very key in maintaining peace on the Plateau. We must continue to talk, we must continue to come together and deliberate on issues because the issues keep changing so we must see how to resolve them. The initiative is timely; restraints, forgiveness, tolerance are needed to have peace.”

The President of the Foundation, Rev. Gideon Para-Mallam explained that the initiative aims to promote reconciliation and peaceful co-existence through peacebuilding as a tool to de-escalate violence between Christians and Muslims in Plateau State and Nigeria.

His words, “We began the discussions with youths across the six local government areas on Monday. This is with the view to end the violence and insecurity. The workshop is tagged “deep dives peace dialogues”.

“We deliberate with about 86 women and their leaders on Tuesday looking at the role women play in the peacebuilding process and today, we brought together religious, community, and traditional leaders. These activities will go a long way in addressing the issue of violence on the Plateau.

“We desire that the people of Plateau State will continue to value dialogue over taking pains in avenging killings in their communities. We desire that people engage in and practice tolerance and forgiveness, we encourage people to promote the sense of justice and fairness for all in the various communities.

“We do not encourage the continuation of the cycle of violence that we witness and that is why we have brought the young people on Monday, the women on Tuesday, and today we consider the traditional rulers, religious leaders, and community leaders with all deliberating to make sure that this state experiences peace.”

Lead facilitator, Professor Shedrack Best who spoke on the role of religious, traditional, community, and political leaders in peace and security in Plateau State, lamented that years of violent conflicts have left many mass graves across the State and called on all to embrace peace.