Peace meetings are supposed to end with handshakes, cautious optimism and everyone returning home safely.
In too many parts of Nigeria, they now seem to come with an unspoken warning that making it back alive is no longer guaranteed. That irony has become painfully difficult to ignore.
The chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association in Benue State, Ardo Muhammad, was reportedly killed alongside Yakubu Isah after attending a peace meeting aimed at easing tensions in Ayunne community.
According to local officials, the meeting itself was productive, yet the journey home ended in an ambush that claimed two lives.
It is the kind of ending that leaves people wondering how peace can survive when violence is waiting just outside the meeting venue.
The tragedy reaches beyond the loss of two men because it also chips away at public confidence in dialogue itself. Every successful peace meeting loses its meaning when those willing to sit at the table cannot safely leave it. Communities are then left questioning whether conversations still carry any value or whether fear has become the only language that travels freely.
The sad reality is that condolences have become more predictable than lasting solutions, while investigations are announced almost as routinely as fresh attacks.
A nation cannot keep inviting people to peace talks if the road home feels more dangerous than the conflict they gathered to resolve.
At some point, peace must stop being something discussed in meeting rooms and start becoming something people can safely drive home with.
