Pursuant to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda on national unity, the Honorable Minister of Women Affairs, Barr Uju Kennedy Ohanenye has described peace as a veritable tool for national growth and development.
Making this declaration during a peace accord meeting with representatives from the warring parties of the Koro, Fulani and Hausa communities from Kagarko Local Government from Kaduna State, the Minister stated that “peace is a non-negotiable ingredient that binds us a nation and catalyst for national growth, so anything that does not promote peace in our society should not be embraced” she said.
According to the Minister, “today’s meeting is a landmark achievement under the watch of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as we have brokered peace among the warring communities in Kagarko Local Government in Kaduna South. The crisis has lingered for 20 years and the Ministry has engaged the traditional rulers and youth leaders on the need to pursue peace and this we are going to achieve by introducing them to mechanized communal farming which will re-direct their energy towards peaceful co-existence and not war” she added.
Speaking further, Barr Uju identified poverty as a worrisome factor which has driven Nigerian youths towards negative tendencies and frowned at the way and manner some youths are easily manipulated to take up arms against each other which has left devastating effects on the fabrics of a national growth.
Part of the arrangements towards ensuring lasting peace she continued, includes provision of 100 acres of land for 200 families drawn from the Koro, Fulani and Hausa communities to plant high yield rice with modern machines which will enhance production and Potato farming by 60 additional families drawn from the 3 communities as part of measures to engender peace and encourage the youths to be productive and self- reliant.
“we want to encourage them to embrace peace by farming together as one family and to channel their energies towards positive tendencies instead of war, through this plan, we will achieve food sufficiency which is part of the renewed hope agenda of Mr. President. The Fulani people have also promised not to allow their cattle to enter the farm lands while the other parties have pledged that they will no longer fight with the Fulani people” she said.
Responding, the leader of the Jere community and Yariman Jere, Alhaji Abdulkareem Suleiman expressed his delight that peace has been restored in Kagarko Local Government after 20 years of lingering crisis and thanked the Minister for Women Affairs for her unrelenting efforts towards achieving this goal. In his words “ to be honest we appreciate, we don’t whether it is magic that we find it very difficult for a very long time but to my surprise today, all violence have been removed from our minds” he said. He also prayed God to strengthen the Minister in all our endeavors.
In the same vein, the Arda Fulani, Alhaji Abdullahi Aliyu expressed his gratitude to the Minister for brokering peace among the communities, adding that Nigeria should be one and Christians and Moslems should live together in harmony to build our country.
The Youth Leader of Kagarko Local Government, Mr. Musa Barnabas said “Growing up as a youth, we use to do things together before this crisis started and we are happy that when our youths are engaged in farming activities, they will not be involved in violence. Farming is our culture and we assure the Minister that we will make good use of this opportunity to ensure lasting peace in our communities” he concluded.
The meeting was concluded with the formal endorsement of a pact by the 3 communities to underscore their resolve to put down their arms and pursue peace in Kagarko Local Government of Kaduna State through mechanized communal farming.
 
Ohaeri Osondu Joseph Fnipr, Fcai
Special Assistant, Media