The communities at the center of the clashes from the Southern zone are either between Kuteb/Jukun, Jukun/Tiv, or Tiv/Kuteb and now Ichen/Tiv. One of the recent clashes in the Nigerian State led to the killing of at least 50 people and the torching of several houses on July 1.
In his August 2 message, Bishop Maigida decries the absence of security agencies and also the lack of “decisive intervention in order to nip in the bud a crisis that has festered for so long in terms of its management and resolution.”
“One can only imagine the extent of destruction of lives and property attributable to the ongoing communal clashes across Southern Taraba,” says the pioneer Bishop of the Nigerian Diocese created in December last year.
The 54-year-old Nigerian Bishop had urged the State Government to rise up to the occasion in the State and, in justice, explore all means possible in order to broker a truce between the warring parties for the sake of peace.
He said that the State government “has the indispensable responsibility of doing everything possible to bring the people together for a sustained dialogue towards short and long term solution to the unfortunate imbroglio.”
“The unity of the good people of Southern Taraba, despite their tribal, religious or political differences, is non-negotiable if they are to make significant progress as a people,” said the Bishop who has been at the helm of the Diocese since his Episcopal Ordination in April this year.
Bishop Maigida urged residents of the State to utilize their Christian values and dominance and come back to their senses and “rediscover the dignity of their Christian identity which only can restore their mental balance so that they can reason together and get themselves out of the woods at this critical moment of their history.”
He said, “They need to reflect deeply in order to understand that only true allegiance to Christ, the founder of Christianity – who is the Way, the Truth and the Life and the fear of God can generate lasting peace within and around them; for He is the ‘Prince of Peace.”
Bishop Maigida added, “For by his blood shed on the Cross and in his own person he has already destroyed the hostility that kept people apart and made them enemies of one another.”
In his message, the Nigerian Bishop also advocated for “cognizance or awareness of the great potentials of southern Taraba; activating all the peacebuilding structures within the state; knowing the correct concept of the neighborhood; and providing farsighted and purposeful leadership as ways that can be employed to address the peace issue in the State for good.
