Buhari speaks on violent clashes in Taraba, Adamawa

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari Saturday said the recent violent clashes in Taraba and Adamawa states, both in the country’s northeast region, cannot be eradicated until the “locals actors” involved in the clashes are ready to make peace.

“The primary initiative for ending violence once and for all must originate from the local actors involved in these clashes,” Buhari tweeted on Saturday.

“Once we abandon reason and good judgement, we are giving violence the chance to take over and make a bad situation more complicated, and difficult to resolve.”

Buhari, however, promised the government will work with “local stakeholders” in the affected states “in order to get to the root of the crises.”

Fatal clashes have been rife in Africa’s most populous country since the conclusion of polarising general elections.

The country’s northeast is the epicentre of the worst violence the country has seen in the last ten years, with Boko Haram splinter groups still attacking villages in the region.

Zamfara and Kaduna, both in the northwest, and Nasarawa, in the northcentral, have also seen an escalation in fatal attacks.

While farmer-herder clashes have been blamed for fatalities recorded in Nasarawa and Adamawa, the rivalry between Tiv and Jukuns is responsible for violence in Taraba.

“The recent violent clashes between Jukuns and Tivs in Taraba State, and the Fulani, Genjon and Bachama in Adamawa State are needless and saddening,” Buhari said.

Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said in a separate statement on Saturday evening that the president has mandated emergency agencies to scale up their activities in the affected communities.

Garba also said President Buhari has mandated a religious group which has been mending up “broken relationships between several communities in Plateau State to work with security agencies to take up the challenges of reconciling the communities in Kaduna, Taraba and Adamawa states.”