The Gbong Gwom of Jos, His Royal Highness (HRH) Jacob Buba, has said that traditional leaders in Nigeria have been marginalized in the struggle for national peace.
According to the monarch, a lot of challenges faced within the country today, are a manifestation of the neglect of the roles that traditional rulers play and a conscious attempt at forgetting history.
Speaking on Friday at the International Peace Conference (IPC) put together by the Asokoro Seventh-Day Adventist Church, tagged – Contextualizing Peace: Nuggets For National Growth, the Gbong Gwom said there have always been a structure that saw traditional rulers and political leaders play their parts effectively for the progress of the nation, an arrangement which he noted has now been disregarded.
He said prior to the present era in which the disregard for chiefs and customary leaders have become very prominent, communities used to have their basic administrations and were always able to handle their affairs amicably.
As regards insecurity, the monarch who was a former Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, said the district heads and kings of various communities have a full knowledge of their various communities and could account for almost every member, however, this potential seem not to have been adequately harnessed as a vital tool for stemming the tides of insecurity.
In his opinion, the absence of community spirit and the marginalization of traditional leaders are major reasons why the enemies have continued to successfully invade villages and communities across the country.
Furthermore, he asserted that a major chunk of the crisis the nation is facing today, is a product of the dysfunction within families.
He said there is an urgent need for Nigerians to reconnect with their roots, and build the nation again from the home-front to the community and down to the country at large, adding that “we must do away with divisive cultures”.
While stressing that there is a certain desire within these times that seeks to have people forget everything about their tribes, the Gbong Gwom questioned why history as a subject of study has been removed from the Nigerian curriculum.
The monarch admonished that though compromise is imperative in the struggle for peace, still, each individual cannot be asked to give up all about themselves and their cultures, for in doing so, each one will lose his or her own true identity.
Beyond this, he urged Nigerians to go from merely tolerating each other to loving each other, emphasizing that love remains a key factor in the pursuit of peace.