Mercy Corps, JDPC, IMC, train religious leaders on conflict mitigation in Kachia LG

By: Mayen Etim

KADUNA, North-West, Nigeria – Religious leaders in Kachia particularly in Gumel and other communities of Kachia Local Government Area, (LGA), in Kaduna State have been trained on modern tools and skills on negation and mediation.

Conflict Programme Specialist of Mercy Corps, Emmanuel Shall, disclosed this at the venue of the event in Kachia, on Thursday, July 28, 2023.

He informed that the event is an interest based training on mediation and negotiation for religious leaders – Imams, Pastors, Sunday school teachers and Adrasat teachers particularly from Gumel and Kachia communities.

According to him, the training is done collaboratively with CIPP partners; Justice Development and Peace Commission, (JDPC), and Interfaith Mediation Center (IMC) Kaduna, aimed at equipping the participants with modern tools and skills to effectively carry out their mediation and negotiation activities.

Shall, who said the religious leaders’ core job entailed mediation which they have been doing, but using old methods, but today they are being equip with these additional tools and skills through the training to make them more effective on the field.

Programme Officer for Community Initiatives to Promote Peace (CIPP)/JDPC, Auwal Mohammed, said the training will afford the religious leaders opportunity to imbibed knowledge in understanding neutrality during meditation and negotiations.

He added that the training will also enabled them improved upon the activities they have been involved in as mediators and negotiators within their communities.

Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN), Gumel Ward, Pastor Joshua Kazamachu, said the training has enlightened participants to drop some extreme positions which they hitherto  claimed to be right, and sometimes thought are done for God.

“Eventually, we came to understand that some of our positions are not necessarily right, hence for one to live in a multicultural environment one has to drop some of those extreme positions. 

“We should regard humanity first. So we hope to drop them in order to live in harmony and protect humanity, and also regard our constitution more than our local beliefs,” he said.