Farmer-herder Conflict: UNDP Commences Peace-building Dialogue for Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba

By Igbawase Ukumba

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Tuesday commenced a two-day Multi-Stakeholder Regional Peace Building Dialogue for Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba States as an integrated approach to building peace in Nigeria’s farmer-herder conflict.

The dialogue, hosted by the Nasarawa State Government in Lafia, had delegates from Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba States in attendance.

Speaking with journalists, the representative of the UNDP, Christian Okafor, said the whole idea of the dialogue was to ensure that UNDP continues to support the governments of Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba to consolidate their efforts in peace building.

Okafor said: “It is important that with our peace building project, through the collaborative effort of both the state and non-state actors, we will continue to support the governments of Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba to ensure peace in that region, as well as make sure the region continues to sustain its developmental efforts.

“So the whole idea of coming here is to bring Benue together with Nasarawa and Taraba. But most importantly, this corridor from Taraba to Nasarawa down to Abuja, we should be able to collectively secure it and having our people living in peace with their eyes closed.”

Also speaking, the representative of West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP), Chief Bridget Osakwe, said WANEP was inspired by the desire to contribute, support and complement the effort of the state governments in enhancing state-level peace architectures to support conflict prevention efforts.

She also said the desire was to increase responsiveness to farmer-herder conflicts through the operationalization of mechanisation for early detection of conflict risks.

According to her, “UNDP and WANEP recognises the complexity and severity of the unfolding farmer-herder clashes in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba States and is committed to prompting peace.”