Shongom Crisis: Hon. Karu says love is the greatest
Chima Azubuike, Gombe
Federal House of Representatives Member representing Kaltungo/Shongom, Hon. Simon Elisha Karu, has called on affected communities of Shongom Local Government Area to sheathe their swords in the name of love.
Karu made this plea on Friday, in his address during a peace parley organised at his instance to resolve issues following the burning of 50 houses and killings due to land dispute in the LGA.
The meeting which held at Shongom LGA headquarters, had hakimis (district heads), council members led by the chairman and a host of party leaders in attendance.
Karu described the crisis as unfortunate, adding that it would open new vista for healing and development in the area.
He said, “Am most grateful and I appreciate the circumstances that we find our selves in. The incident that transpired on the 29th of May 2021, was indeed an unfortunate situation but we count it as a privilege that it is an opportunity for us to strengthen our communities. communities hardly stay together without having spites and conflict among them.
“But when it resolves to violent conflict then it calls for an inward review and then a look into cultural situation within them. Wherever you find breakout law and order certain values must have been violated before an eruption of the physical violence.
“So it is a call to duty for the local government chairman, it is a call to duty for the local government councillors, most especially it is a call to duty for our traditional leaders because they are the first respondents to such communal issues and if they are to manage such circumstances it will not escalate to the extent of such a huge physical violence.
“So it is happening at a point in time where our traditional leaders needs to be strategically positioned in the governance at the grassroots because they are the closest to the grassroots. For me, I think while it’s unfortunate, it is also an opportunity to go back to history and begin reason in terms of what dictates kept these communities in peace and harmony.”
On efforts geared towards mitigating further violence, Elisha revealed that he had contacted development partners towards restoring peace and forestalling a reoccurrence.
He said, “I have rallied down quite a number of development partners who are already working in the community and they have quickly requested a level of support to get into an intervention program that strengthens peace building within the society and bringing these traditional leaders together and the councillors is the number one step in bringing about peace. Because where you have them in charge of the respective community is easier to bring that level of cohesion among the people and that level of coexistence naturally.
“I call on our constituents to exercise a level of patience with each other and a level of tolerance. Even though I would love to call that let us invite the culture of love in dealing with one another. The absence of love is where you have people being urged to be tolerant but where there is love there is no need to call the people to be tolerant. I call for love and peaceful co-existence.”
Also, Chairman Shongom Local Government Area, Hon. Yohanna Nahari, commended the concern of the Federal Lawmaker in mitigating possible reoccurrence of the violence, adding that justice is a panacea.
Nahari said, “My call to my people; in a situation like this is for us to understand that God has created us not as another thing but to live as people, together, caring for each other, loving each other, and sharing each other’s burden.
But in a situation whereby a conflict erupts, we need to have people that will reason and strife to see that they curtail the escalation not in order to fuel the situation.
“Even though we are in a generation where we have broken homes, people with political differences, and other issues that may really cause some certain issues but my calk is that we need to know that this is our communities, this is our local government, this is our state and this is our country. If we use our hands to spoil and destroy our own communities then who do we think will come and build it for us?”
According to the chairman, warring communities could eschew violence as brothers and remain in peace as they have always done.
“The violence is between closest communities that are living together, there is intermarriage between them. You will find that in a family, they have their daughter who is married to someone in the other community. In fact, it is very unfortunate to find that in an area, this is the residence of this tribe, and the next is another tribe. And the residence of this one being destroyed skipping the one next to it to destroy the other, this will not help us.
“What I want to add about peace is that I call upon our communities and our local government to embrace peace unconditionally because no one can pay the price of peace. Peace is not even the absence of war, is not the absence of the escalation of chaos but peace is justice. So wherever there is justice that is peace. So I calk upon my people in the communities and the local government to be just in all their dealings. You will find that even this issue might have been a result of injustice, one may feel he has been deprived of justice. So where there is justice, that is where there is justice, I call upon my people embrace justice and peace will be a chain that will follow,” he said.
He added, “There are casualties, I know those that sustained gunshot injuries. There are other casualties discovered aside from the woman, they are about eight in number.”
Speaking, Hakimi Burak, Gondak Garba, promised that traditional institution would continue to maintain peace and unity in the communities.
Garba said, “We should also value lives, we are all Muslims and Christians who know God and he value lives. Reason is, there is a living hood between us, me that am standing here now am from Shongom, there are people from Filiya here, that are political people here so these things are not supposed to be happening here.
“We are from the same local government, we have the same king. Honestly, we are praying and pleading with God that this thing should not happen again. Because rest of us like the minor tribes, are living in fear every day. When fight broke between two tribes, they should be settled because the minor tribes are always afraid. We should pray to God and also the community leaders should always try to sort things out between any community that has conflict with the other. A lot of people ran away from this community with everything they have.”
He added, “People fight even because of a woman, we are no hoping for that but we all know that it’s our duty to maintain our tradition and is obvious that women are nothing. It’s because of that they lived peacefully and put their hands in every sector, farming and the rest. This thing has happened and we are saddened by it but if there is love, sincere love in our hearts, we will not experience such, it’s not right.”
