Dr. Ishaya Inuwa Durkwa urged women in Adamawa to unite across political and social divides, stressing that collective action is essential for sustainable development and lasting peace in the state.
- Durkwa calls for unity among women across political divides
- Over 1,000 women attend International Women’s Day event
- First Lady praised for inclusive and bold initiative
- Unity framed as key to sustainable development in Adamawa
Dr. Ishaya Inuwa Durkwa has spent years working at the intersection of peacebuilding and social justice across Nigeria. He has sat in rooms where conflict was still fresh, mediated in communities where trust had completely broken down, and built frameworks for reconciliation in places where the word itself felt premature. When he stands before an audience and talks about unity, he is not reading from a script. He is speaking from a body of work.
On April 2, 2026, that experience walked into a hall in Yola and addressed over 1,000 women from across Adamawa State’s political and social divides.
The occasion was the International Women’s Day celebration hosted by First Lady Hajiya Lami Ahmadu Fintiri, and Dr. Durkwa had been invited to deliver the keynote lecture. The theme gave him the platform he needed. Strong Together. Uniting Women Beyond Divides for a Thriving Adamawa State.
He took that theme seriously.
As Chief Executive Officer of the International Organization for Peace Building and Social Justice, Dr. Durkwa’s professional life is built around a single conviction. That lasting progress in any society is impossible without the deliberate construction of trust across the lines that divide people. He brought that conviction into the hall and placed it directly before the women who had gathered there from different parties, different backgrounds, and different corners of a complex state.
His message was not complicated. When women choose to stand together rather than remain separated by the affiliations that compete for their loyalty, the collective force they produce is qualitatively different from anything they can achieve individually or within the narrow walls of a single party. He described that unity not as an act of goodwill but as a strategic decision with real and measurable consequences for communities, families, and the broader development of Adamawa State.
Dr. Durkwa pressed further into the practical dimensions of what he was saying. Sustainable development, he argued, does not emerge from well-funded projects or well-worded government policies alone. It grows from people who share a purpose and are willing to work toward it across the lines that typically keep them apart. For women in Adamawa, a state that has been tested by insecurity, political tension, and the pressures of a difficult national economy, that kind of shared purpose is not a luxury. It is a prerequisite.
He commended Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri for creating the kind of governance environment in which this type of inclusive engagement becomes possible, noting that leadership from the top matters when it comes to shaping the culture of a state. But it was his assessment of the First Lady’s initiative that carried the most pointed language of the afternoon.
Dr. Durkwa described Hajiya Lami Fintiri’s decision to host a Women’s Day celebration that deliberately brought together women from rival political parties as bold, timely, and uncommon in today’s political space. He did not soften that assessment. In a country where gatherings of this kind are almost always designed to consolidate existing loyalties rather than challenge them, the First Lady had chosen a different model. Dr. Durkwa said it deserved to be called what it was. An example worth following.
He closed his address by returning to the women in front of him. He urged them to sustain what they had demonstrated simply by being in that room together. The unity on display that afternoon, he told them, was not the end of anything. It was the beginning of what development in Adamawa could look like when women decided to lead it together.
For those who have followed Dr. Durkwa’s work across northern Nigeria, the keynote was consistent with a voice that has always pushed communities toward the harder and more durable forms of progress. Not the kind that comes from a single election or a single event, but the kind that gets built slowly, through repeated choices to show up for each other across difference.
The Gazette News (Nigeria) notes that Dr. Durkwa’s message in Yola that afternoon was delivered to an audience that had already made the first choice. Over 1,000 women from competing political traditions sitting in one hall under one theme. What he gave them was a framework for understanding why that choice matters, and a challenge to keep making it long after the celebration was over.
Dawisu Adamawa’s Media Aide Fires Back: “This Is a Personal Feud, Not a Fraud Case”
This report was produced by the editorial team at The Gazette News | Independent. Human-Centred. Impactful in line with our commitment to accuracy, fairness, and responsible journalism. Information in this article is based on verified sources available at the time of publication. The Gazette News | Independent. Human-Centred. Impactful may update the story as new facts emerge or additional context becomes available.
The Gazette News | Independent. Human-Centred. Impactful accepts zero funding from governments, corporations, or political parties. No advertiser dictates our coverage. No political interest shapes our investigations. The journalism you just read exists because readers like you chose to protect it. Every contribution goes directly into the field — paying reporters, protecting sources, and ensuring the stories that matter get told without fear or favour.
Funded by Readers
Us Right Now
