We must end violence at all cost —Dogara

The Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has said the government and people of Nigeria cannot afford to lose the prevailing fight against criminal activities.

He said no society can keep its civilization once it loses a fight against violence. Neither can such country keep its unity and love, which is why the country must win this war against violence to remain a peaceful and united nation.

Dogara stated this in his keynote address during the Berom cultural festival, Nzem Berom, held in Jos yesterday.

According to Dogara, “what is confronting this nation, which is violence, must be stopped at all cost.

“The nation has had its full share of this unfortunate tragedy that has continued to happen to our nation, and I’ve said several times that we cannot afford to lose the fight against violence and still keep our civilization.

“That has never happened, it won’t happen, and it will never happen.

“Any nation that has lost the fight against violence has always lost its civilization.

“Take the situation with the Northeast where I come from, there are communities where you can’t find anything as representatives of the Government. Police stations are gone, roads, buildings, hospitals and schools have all been destroyed.

“How long is it going to take us before we even get back to the position where we were prior to the breakout of violence?

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“I want to charge us that if we really win this fight against violence, it will be because some of us have decided that we will walk across board in order to be peace builders and ensure that our people live in peace.

“Of course it’s going to be difficult as always. The challenge has always been fear and mistrust.

“When you talk about courage, however, you cannot begin to exercise courage except fear is present. Without fear, there’s no question relating to courage.

“So it will take leadership that believes in the courage to sit down together with the opponents, enemies, with even those who feel like killing you, in order to find a way out.

“I’ve reflected long and hard on the issues pertaining to this violence in Nigeria, which is perhaps everywhere now, especially in Northern Nigeria. I have discovered that most of us dwell on errors, and it is these errors that have served as fuel for these violence.

“For instance, there is an error that tells us that a whole ethnic group can be just wiped out. And any person who utilises his senses will know that it is highly impossible to talk of just wiping out an ethnic group, except the God that created them decides to wipe them out Himself. Else, nobody would be able to achieve that. So, that is an error.

“I’ve also heard of the error that stipulates that violence can be cured by more violence. It doesn’t work that way.

“There has never been a conflict in the world, not even where the best of the war machines are used, that the weapons of war were thought to have resolved and brought to peace. Peace has always been obtained at the table of brotherhood. So that is another error.

“One more error that I’ve heard consistently being repeated, which is a capital lie, by some of the advocates of this violence to say that it is because of cattle rustling that there has been violence. That is not true.

“Everyone who has reflected on the subject of cattle rustling would know that for some people to rustle cattle, especially in this part of Nigeria, it would take a number of people from different tribes coming together to perpetrate that act.

“It is not usually the case that it is only one tribe that would rustle cattle. If it’s in Plateau for example, there’ll be maybe a Birom man involved, maybe a Fulani man who knows how to process the cattle very well and other tribes associated with it. There may be those driving the cattle to the Southeast in order to sell them. So this is all perpetrated by a syndicate of criminals.

“Then at the end of the day, it is the ordinary Birom farmer who pays the price, or an ordinary Fulani man who doesn’t know what was going on in the region bringing his cattle in from somewhere.”

In his opening remarks, the paramount ruler of the Berom nation, The Gbong Gwom Jos, Da. Jacob Gyang Buba, said despite the permission by President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector General of Police for the establishment of Mobile Police Barrack in Gashish village in Barkin-Ladi LGA of Plateau State where over 230 people were killed in June last year, nothing has been done up to date.

He noted that the Berom has the largest number of IDPs in the state who don’t only need food but need to be relocated to their ancestral homes.

Da. Buba said the state has not felt the impact of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and appealed to government to direct NEMA to come to the aid of the people.

He said no amount of provocation from whosoever would make the Berom nation not to hold Nzem Berom in the years ahead, saying that no government has the right to redefine traditional boundaries in Plateau State.

The Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Barr. Solomon Dalung, admonished Plateau people to join hands together to promote peaceful co-existence in the state.

The cultural festival witnessed a display of varieties of rich Berom culture.