They Emir of Awe, HRH Isa Umar II and his counterpart from Azara, HRH Kabiru Musa signed the peace pact on Tuesday.
The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue is an implementing partner of the NLTP. It focuses on conflict and peace resolution, and inclusion of women and youth in the scheme.
Signing the pact in the Awe Local Government Area of the state, the Lead Facilitator of HD, Ahmed Yassin, said the NGO facilitated the signing of the agreement to also prevent the issues of farmer/header crisis across the 13 LGAs of the state.
He further said that the project which would be sited on a 26,000 hectares of land is hoped to be replicated in other parts of the country to ensure continuous peaceful coexistence among Nigerians.
He said, “The aim of the visit is to have a dialogue meeting with the communities and the traditional rulers. They (traditional rulers) have signed the peace agreement between the two emirates councils of Awe and Azara. The agreement is purely preventive.
“Facilitating the peace agreement is to support the federal government on the National Livestock Transformation Plan, which is a 10 year programme. The Center for Humanitarian Dialogue has a memorandum of understanding with the NLTP to support them on the implementation.
“We have identified two pillers; one is on peace and conflict resolution and the second one is on inclusion. Dialogue is the best way to prevent conflict between farmers and herders.
“The Nasarawa State peace agreement is historical and the fast ever. It is the first ever agreement signed between the two emirates. I am happy because it has shown that the integrity of the NLTP is intact.”
On his part, the state Coordinator of NLTP, Dr. Abdullahi Musa, said the programme was earlier lunched in August 2021 by the state governor, Abdullahi Sule, to ensure that peace between farmers and herders is maintained.
“The aim of the NLTP is to ensure that both the farmers and herders take care of their animals, and farm in a way that the use of land is maximized. It is also to reduce the conflict between farmers and herders.
“There are over 300 communities within the grazing reserve that are involved, but 30 households would be participating in this pilot project. They would be trained for two years, after which, they would be allocated a places where they would rear their animals within the grazing reserve,” he said.
In their remarks, the emirs of Awe and Azara, commended the NGO for coming up with the initiative which would ensure lasting peace across the state.
While urging the FG to move to the NLTP site without further delay, the monarchs called for the inclusiveness of thier subjects in the project, noting that it would go a long way in addressing youths restiveness in the state.
