By Gabriel Udeh, Kaduna
The new President of Atyap Community Development Association (ACDA),
Comrade Dr. Silas Adamu said there’s general desire for unanimous resolution within the three major ethnic groups to returned to peaceful coexistence in Atyap chiefdom in Southern kaduna.
He said, the unanimous resolution to return to peace desirable that true and genuine peace could only be achieived when those directly involved in the conflict are allowed to discussed among themselves in order to fashion a way out of this conundrum first.
The president made the disclosure during an address at the reception organized in his honour by committee of friends at wonderlands hotel in kafanchan area of kaduna state on Saturday.
He said the vision and will of their ancestors is to build a very strong community where every Atyap, Hausa, Fulani and other ethnic groups in their land shall live peacefully and secured their future, where justice shall reign supreme.
“There is a general desire within these groups to return to peaceful coexistence. We also discovered a general and unanimous resolution that a return to peace is desirable but that true and genuine peace can only be achieived when those directly involved in the conflict are allowed to talk to themselves first in order to fashion a way out of this connundrum.
“We have agreed that we shall meet in the near future to talk to ourselves before we invite other stakeholders and government to inform them of our peace formula which will require the blessings of all the stakeholders and government.
“And the vision and will of our ancestors is what will build a very strong community where every Atyap, Hausa, Fulani and other ethnic groups in our land shall live peacefully and secure their future, where justice shall reign supreme”,he said.
He further said,” And we believe this is achievable coming on the heels of our consultation with the three major ethnic groupings, viz a viz, Atyap, Hausa and Fulani, which we started yesterday and continued this morning*, he said.
The president however stated that “except the conflict merchants are on the prowl, all we expect from those looking for genuine peace is to allow ACDA to probe through this onerous task and come up with what will be interrogated by all patriotic people searching for solutions to our imbroglio.
“Like what one of the Hausa youths said this morning, peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice and we need courage of all well meaning citizens and government to achieve this.
“And, like they say, courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to move on in the presence of fear. This we are ready to demonstrate as long as we have the support of our people, the traditional rulers and those vested with constitutional powers at the Federal, State and local government area as well as the executive, the legislature and judiciary”, he noted.
While he noted, very strongly, the role played by the fourth estate of the realm because the “pen is mightier than the gun”, he said, journalists have used their pen very well as a tool for construction and building bridges and peace among their people, rather than using it as a weapon for destruction of the fabrics “that hold us together.
“We also raise our hats in honour of security agents which have helped in descalation of violence and bringing and atmosphere that is good enough for consultation and discussion of our problems.
“So when we talk to ourselves, listen to ourselves, we shall unravel the pandora’s box which will give us peace and secure us economically, socially, agriculturally infrastructurally et-al and bring about the 3r(s) of true reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction of all those affected in the crisis”, he said.
According to him ACDA would no longer abandoned their people to the ruberics of selfish and self serving pseudo political and religious bigots “but shall encourage them to question the basis of the representation of our people at a every level of human endeavour.
“If we don’t engage in the decision making of our futre, someone else will do it and decide how we live, how we sleep and what should be ours and not what is really ours on the basis of social justice. The result is where we find ourselves today”, he also said.
He said they’ll interrogate what their positions have brought to the table of their collective patrimony, be they Atyap, Hausa or Fulani and any other ethnic group in our land.
The president said although as a socio-cultural group, they are non-religious and non-political, and “want to draw the attention of their people that the time has come for ACDA to have more than just a passing interest in the political activities surrounding our collective will for progress and development.
Dr. Adamu said peaceful co-existence would be for their collective good as it would translated to mutual trust, progress and all round prosperity.
“As the President of ACDA, I, alongside my team I will leave no stone unturned in searching for ways to bring development to our community”, he said.
“If we mobilise and sensitise our people to go with only people that were there for them when they needed peace and security, people who wiped their tears when they were hungry; political parties that provided food when they were hungry, a government that provided justice to them when they were emasculated, groups that provided succour to them when they became homeless, even religious organisations that did not only sympathise with them in their hour of need by praying for God’s intervemtion for them but also empathised with them by practically providing basic needs for them as an injuction of God, and we knock on their doors and ask our people to vote for them or pray for them and mobilise in their favour and you call it politics or religion, then we are ready to change the narratives along this line”, he added.
