With over 81 ethnic groups, the northern states of Nigeria have long seen conflict, with many communities’ local government going from one communal crisis to the next. In Gombe State, the local government area of Shongom has dealt with a number of conflicts, such as scarce resources, property loss and other injustices. According to locals in the Lalapido and Boh communities, the disputes have been generational to an extent, with the area’s history of land ownership becoming muddled over the years.

Many of these disputes over land aren’t being addressed outside the communities, with conflict increasing across Gombe South, primarily in Kaltungo, Balanga, Biliri and Shongom local government areas. To help inform people on how they can help spread peace, Youth Exchange and Study (YES) alumni in Gombe South held a town hall meeting to open a dialogue among the conflicting communities.

YES alumni got the approval of the Village Head in Lalapido and the District Head of Boh, both in Shongom, to host the event on May 26th. According to Ishaku Abner (YES alumnus 2009-2010, Nigeria, hosted in Coon Rapids, IA by IRIS), alumni worked first with these two communities, but plan to visit all four Chiefdoms in the area and have them participate in inter-community activities such as the town hall meeting. The meeting began the first phase of a multiphase plan called “Tangale - Waja Peace Accord,” a plan to address the communal conflicts in the area and create a peaceful environment for future generations.

A total of 107 people attended the event, 89 of them being youths. The large amount of youth in attendance was important, as many of them also promised to take part in the upcoming Peace Accord’s “Football for Peace” competition between the four local government areas.

Ishaku said the goal of the discussion at the meeting was to approach the conflicts indirectly. Instead of talking about why the conflicts were happening and what they were doing to the communities, the group talked about benefits that could be brought to the area by resolving the conflict and remaining peaceful. The alumni decided this was the the best approach after noticing that similar campaigns in the area used a direct approach to the conflict, which didn’t yield much results in terms of conflict resolution.

Future phases of the Peace Accord include events such as social media campaigns, monthly town hall meetings, quiz competitions among secondary school students across the four regions, and workshops discussing the importance of education for girls to ensure a gender balance in the project. Ishaku said the Peace Accord will also recognize student leaders who help engage their peers and their communities in peaceful resolutions by taking them on a visit to the Gombe State University zoo.

“We hope to have a complete year free of conflicts, which occur mostly during the rainy season,” Ishaku said. “My partners in this project will include both village heads and a number of youths in the affected local government areas.”

Additional alumni involved in this project include:

• Patience Habila (YES alumna 2014-2015, Nigeria, hosted in Lead Hill, AR by AYUSA)
• Esther Bila (YES alumna 2014-2015, Nigeria, hosted in Hills, IA by IRIS)
• Joy Alewa (YES alumna 2015-2016, Nigeria, hosted in Buckley, WA by AYUSA)