Yola – The Vice Chancellor of Moddibo Adama University of Technology (MAUTECH), Yola, Prof. Kyari Mohammed, has appealed to Communities in Adamawa to accept repentant Boko Haram members as part of the ongoing peace and reconciliation process.
Mohammed made the call on Monday in Yola while giving lectures to participants at a Post-Conflict Reconciliation Residential Meeting Between Communities, Stakeholders and Security Agencies.
The programme was organised by Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in collaboration with UNDP.
“Whoever is not yet ready to talk to the enemy is not yet ready for peace and reconciliation,” he said.
He said relative peace had returned to Adamawa and that the people needed to work toward a lasting peace as they resettled to pick up their lives again.
The vice chancellor said the university in collaboration with the army had recently through its Centre for Peace and Security Studies organised a regional conference on peace building and reconstruction.
He said this was part of the institution’s numerous contributions to peace in the region.
A Senior Lecturer and Researcher with MAUTECH Centre for Peace and Security Studies, Mr Chris Kwaja, said the CDD meeting was to built trust that was necessary in peace building.
Kwaja said for sustainable reconciliation to be achieved, there must be trust building among the the stakeholders which he said would be gradual.
Kwaja noted that already, the military was involved in the de-radicalisation of some repentant Boko Haram members under “Operation Save Corridor” who would want to return to their communities.
The Programme Manager of CDD, Mr Ikponwese Omoigiade, said the programme was being sponsored by the Japanese Government through UNDP and was for selected communities affected by insurgency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
Omoigiade said that the programme was also to promote harmony between stakeholders particularly the communities and security agencies to work together in harmony for peaceful coexistence.
A participant, Malam Ahmadu Buba, commended the initiative but said that for the communities to accept repentant insurgents they must be assured that the repentance was genuine.
