Group, Bille People In Diaspora Chart Path For Dev

Manpower, political and economic development have been identified as crucial elements in sustaining the growth of Bille people in the diaspora.
This is one of the fallouts in the  seven-point communiqué released after the JAMKAB Peace and Empowerment Initiative held at Bille Town in Degema Local Government Area recently.
The progamme was aimed at bringing together the JAMKAB ethnic nationality, which include Bille Kingdom and is spread among six states of Plateau, Benue, Kaduna Adamawa and Nasarawa, Bauchi  and two other African countries including Cameroun and Central African Republic.
The body also seeks to fight through legitimate means the domination of the JAMKAB ethnic group by the major tribes of Hausa and Yoruba, as it called on all sons and daughters to unify to pursue a common front.
President of the body, Mr Butwat Manasseh Kunwur in his address stated that the programme aims  at providing opportunities for the people to evolve means of economic growth and enhancement of programmes to enrich them.
According to him, the body has been registered as a non-governmental organization, hosted  seminars and recently floated a scholarship fund to champion manpower development among the group.
President of JIKA, Chief James Barry called on all members to rise to the challenge of building to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.
Chief Barry while calling for inter-marriage and cultural exchanges between the people said, “we are here to encourage our people. You must rise and build our members”.
In his welcome address, Secretary of Bille Kingdom Chiefs Council, Chief Ibiba Kombonimi said the seminar and re-union was timely, as it creates a sense of belonging and love.
In the words of Chief Kombonimi, ‘ the artificial boundaries established during our colonial past rather than force us remember our common heritage before the advent of the White man, now seems to separate us even further.”
Delivering a paper titled, “Education and Development: The Imperatives of Community Partnership’ Prof. Kontein Trinya of the Department of English Studies, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education identified education as vehicle of development.
Trinya submitted that education helps to liberate the people from oppression of  others and give them platform for self discovery.
The university don also used the seminar to call on youths in the area to desist from destroying the ecosystem in the quest to make a livelihood as that will amount mortgaging the future of the unborn generation.