Abiodun Essiet, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement (North-Central), has declared that nearly 70 per cent of security challenges in the North-Central can be resolved through non-kinetic means anchored on community engagements.
Essiet, speaking on Tuesday at a stakeholders’ capacity training for the North-Central held at the State House, Abuja, stated that empirical analysis indicates the crises can be addressed through dialogue that fosters reconciliation.
The region, regarded as the food basket of Nigeria, had in recent times witnessed massive deaths from banditry, kidnapping and communal attacks.
In June this year, over 100 lost their lives, followed by 70 in July and 27 in August.
“From our analysis, nearly 70 percent of the security challenges in the North Central can be addressed through dialogue, reconciliation, intelligence sharing, and community engagement, rather than through force alone.”
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She revealed that the June Presidential Community Engagement Peace Initiative (PCEPI) in Jos, Plateau State, had provided a platform for fostering unity.
“That historic event was a significant step in our collective journey toward fostering unity, strengthening social cohesion, and empowering communities to take ownership of their peace processes.”
She revealed that her office is partnering with the International Communities Organisation (ICO) on a project titled “Promoting Community Peace and Strengthening Social Cohesion in North Central Nigeria,” in line with Nigeria’s implementation of United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) recommendations.
“At the heart of this initiative is the establishment of a peace structure that will cut across all the 110 local governments in the North Central region,”.
“This structure will not just exist in name; it will be an active platform … focusing on gathering and sharing intelligence, facilitating continuous dialogue, and helping us identify underlying issues and root causes of conflict. Ultimately, this peace structure will serve as the backbone of sustainable peacebuilding in our region,” she noted.
“Once we succeed in resolving internal communal conflicts and addressing the root causes of tension. We will already be halfway to overcoming insecurity in the North Central,” while armed criminality remains for security agencies.
Joshua Osatimehin-Wole, Commandant-General of the Nigerian Forest Security Service (NFSS), revealed that Nigeria has 1,129 forest reserves, with 174 in the North-Central, in his remarks.
He called for tighter inter-agency cooperation and effective forest control, identifying Niger, Kwara and Benue as epicentres requiring enhanced surveillance.
“For sustainable peace in our communities, all our forested regions must be well coordinated and preserved. We need to protect the forests,” he said.
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“We must create additional security agencies to conduct continuous security surveillance. Three states border international frontiers—Niger, Kwara and Benue—and they are the epicentres of insecurity. There should be inter-agency cooperation and effective control of our forests.”
“What Nigeria is currently going through goes beyond farmers–herders clashes. We must also consider the post-Gaddafi era,” Wole said, noting that mercenaries scattered across the Sahel after Gaddafi’s fall.
Kole Shettima, Director of the MacArthur Foundation, underlined the centrality of stability to development: “Unless there is peace, you cannot do what you want to do. Peace is essential and paramount,” he said.
He urged the National Assembly to strengthen traditional institutions. “We have to look historically at how our elders solved conflicts and learn from it.”
Project coordinator Jacob Alagbe said the programme brings state-level actors together to promote peaceful coexistence and social cohesion, with outputs feeding into state-specific action plans.
