Agwai Says Better Hospitals Can Help Stop Violence in Nasarawa

(General Martin Luther Agwai. Photo by PRNigeria)

General Martin Luther Agwai, former Chief of Defence Staff, says rural healthcare is a peace tool.

When communities have access to medical care, he argues, it keeps people stable and reduces conflict.

He made the point while handing over a newly built health centre to Kolo community in Toto Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, a region ravaged by violence for years.

Kolo and surrounding areas had been torn apart by crises that displaced families, killed loved ones and shut down schools.

People lost everything. Now that relative peace has returned, displaced residents are moving home, children are back in classrooms and markets are reopening.

General Agwai, who chairs the Middle Belt Brain Trust (MBBT), saw this moment as the right time to rebuild basic services the community needs to heal and stay stable.

The health centre was built by MBBT working with the Institute for Integrated Transitions, backed by funding from the UK Foreign Office's SPRING Project.

It's part of a larger reconstruction push in Toto that includes a primary school block in Zono and market stalls across four communities Shege, Katakpa, Gwargwada and Gwombe.

Each market got 12 new stalls.

The strategy is deliberate. Working markets bring people together regularly to trade, reconnecting communities whose social and economic bonds were shattered by years of fighting.

A functioning health centre means less suffering and more reason to stay put.

A working school means young people have futures.

Together, these basic services make peace feel real and lasting, not just a temporary pause.

Toto's local government chairman backed the effort, promising his team would fix broken boreholes in the area.

The Ohimegye of Opanda-Umaisha Kingdom, represented at the ceremony, thanked the organisations and urged residents to maintain peace across tribal and religious lines.

The message was clear: recovery only works if people stay committed to living together.