Over two decades after the death of late Mrs. Kudirat Abiola, her son Abduljamiu Abiola has declared with pains that if his mother was alive today she wouldn’t have been happy with the rising level of insecurity in Kaduna State and would have taken measures to stem the tide because she detested violence.
He recalled that his mother and wife of Nigeria’s icon of democracy, late Chief MKO Abiola, was an embodiment of peace, born in Sabon Gari area of Zazzau emirate and lived with members of the community peacefully because “she was a woman of peace.
“Yes she wouldn’t have been happy over the insecurity in Kaduna State and because of her love for peace and stability, she would have put in efforts to ensure that peace prevailed in the state”, Abiola said.
He stated this while speaking at a two-day capacity training for the staff of Chikun local government area organised by Kaduna Peace Commission in collaboration with Kudirat Abiola Sabon Garin Peace Foundation on Wednesday .
Abiola noted that the foundation was miffed with the insecurity in the state, saying, “it was based on this premise that we want to educate the local government staff on the need to have peace in our communities.
“We are starting in Chikun LG as a pilot scheme for us to see how we can move to other local government areas of the state.”
Speaking at the event, the Permanent Commissioner, Kaduna State Peace Commission (KAPECOM), Hajia Khadijah Hawaja Gambo said to ensure peace is attained in the local government areas, the commission has set up peace committes in the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.
According to her, the law that sets up the commission says each LGA in the state must have a peace committee.
“In 2019, we set up the peace committees. In 2020, we were about starting the training of peace committees before COVID-19 outbreak prevented it,” she explained.
Hajia Gambo said that while they were thinking of how to commence the training for the peace committees, Kudirat Abiola Foundation approached them and they entered into a partnership.
“God blessed us with the Kudirat Foundation, who came knocking on our doors for partnership and we grabbed the opportunity.
“They were magnanimous and asked for the pressing issue and we told them we needed to train our peace committees to be on ground effectively,” she disclosed.
“We are looking forward to Kaduna returning to a peaceful state, not only Kaduna, but Nigeria,” she declared.
In her remarks, the Overseer Chikun LGA, Mrs. Jummai Yero, in a goodwill message, said Chikun was delighted to be first for the training of peace committee members.
“As we attend this workshop, we would be able to reform Chikun LGA and make it peaceful again.
“We pray God intervenes and stops our youth because drug abuse is a big problem.
“Chikun LGA needs serious counseling and peace. We need funds to be able to achieve more and step the programme down to various wards and even districts,” she stressed.
At the training the commissioner for local government, Jaafaru Sani commended the Iniative of the organisers in bringing the training to the grassroots.
According to him, “peace is becoming an expensive venture than governance’, saying, “I know how cost effective it is to manage crisis if it erupted in local government” and therefore appealed to Nigerians to ensure peace prevail within and their immediate environment for the benefit of all.
