Chairman of the Middle Belt Brain Trusts (MBBT), Gen. Marthin Luther Agwai, (rtd) has said Nasarawa state scored very high in terms of access to political, social leadership and collaboration indexes.
He stated this on Tuesday at the inaugural meeting of the Nasarawa state forum, organised in collaboration with the Middle Belt Brain Trust (MBBT) and Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT) in Lafia.
Agwai said the state has sufficient human resource capacity, managed conflicts better than other states, and is considered more stable when compared to its neighbours around the middle belt zone hence the choice of the state for inaugural peace meeting.
He explained that MBBT aimed at building social cohesion by working together to create locally driven social covenants to be led by the people as leadership in Nasarawa state has been very proactive, receptive and collaborative in terms of opportunity to build elite and social consensus.
“We are a team of volunteers made up of experts in various areas such as security, peace building, community development and social development, inter-religious dialogue, mediation, and justice reform drawn from Nasarawa, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau and Taraba States,” he said.
On his part, the country coordinator, Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT), Thomas Bimba jnr, said IFIT is a leading international NGO focused on the integration of policy making in contexts of negotiation and transition in conflict-affected states.
Bimba further said IFIT serves as an independent and impartial platform for generating creative, realistic and principled ideas aimed at expanding the range of perceived options available to advance peace and reconciliation, while drawing heavily on lessons learned from other contexts.
As according to him, “Currently we have over 200 international experts working with us. Our critical work is conducted through Brain Trust (groups of interdisciplinary go- between leaders whose role is critical in bridging national,sector and community level processes of dialogue, peace building and transition).”
While declaring the meeting open, Nasarawa state governor Abdullahi Sule commended MBBT and IFIT for the laudable initiative.
He said the state government would continue to welcome initiatives that would assist the state towards consolidating collective commitment to promote peaceful co-existence for socio-economic development of the society.
