Oyo Govt. trains LGs’ principal officials on conflict management

By Ogundele Olanrewaju

Oyo State Government on Wednesday, began a 3-day training workshop on conflict management for local governments’ principal officials.

The workshop organised by the State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftancy Matters is aiming to address some of the major challenges hindering smooth administration of government at the grassroots.

The theme of the workshop is ‘Conflict management : A veritable tool to attain sustainable transformation agenda at the grassroots.’

Declaring the workshop open in Ibadan, Commissioner for Local Government, Chief Bayo Lawal, said the workshop was designed to find lasting solutions to various internal crises retarding developments across the councils.

Lawal aknowledged that local government administration was the closest to the people but said its impact could only be seen and felt in the atmosphere of peace and good governance.

The Commissioner said the administration at the local government level needed to be repositioned in terms of focusing and resetting of the mind.

This, according to him, will make people at the grassroots benefit from the giant strides of the present administration in Oyo State.

He charged the councils’ officials’ to embrace peaceful resolutions of any disagreement in their respective councils.

“The era politics of bitterness is gone, you must eschew animosity, acrimony and bickering.

“Friction and disagreement are part of human nature, what distinguishes one person from another is the ability to rise above pettiness and embrace collaborative approach to life.

“As leaders, we must accept the fact that conflict of interest is inherent in man and the reality is that we are created differently, from different backgrounds and orientations.

“Yet, for our survival, we must relate interdependently and have to co-exist, therefore, the only sensible and intelligent way of resolving differences and clashes of interest is through dialogue,” Lawal stated.

Two guest lecturers, Prof. Albert Olawale of the Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan and Prof. Yisa Yusuf, Department of English, are expected to deliver papers at the workshop.

Olawale paper is titled ‘Conflict management : a veritable tool to attain sustainable transformation agenda at the grassroots while Yusuf will deliver a paper titled ‘ Language as a tool for peace, social mobilisation and development.