Stakeholders in the CSOs, and the media sectors have listed the failure of governance, mounting poverty, inequality, as well as weak community resilience as the four occurrences driving insecurity in most of states in the northern part of Nigeria.
The submission was the major takeaways from a one-day media engagement on Promoting PCVE, and Stakeholders ` Initiative in the North, with the theme: “Amplifying voices for peace: Media partnerships in PCVE and resilience-building” held Thursday, in Kaduna.
Speaking on the sidelines of the engagement with journalists, Jaye Gaskiya, chairperson, Partnership Against Violent Extremism (PAVE) National Steering Committee, and Yetunde Adegoke, national coordinator, Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), Geneva, noted that addressing the identified factors, is imperative for the restoration of security in the region.
The engagement programme, which was organised in collaboration with the Office of the National Security Adviser, and ActionAid Nigeria, with funding from the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund, brought together journalists and civil society organisations focused on strengthening partnerships to tackle extremist ideologies, improve governance, and amplify peace narratives in communities vulnerable to extremist recruitment.
Gaskiya, a veteran civil society leader, observed that insecurity in the North-West and beyond would persist unless the country tackled the root causes of violent extremism, noting that extremist groups thrive in areas where governance structures are weak and citizens feel abandoned.
“At the base of this crisis, really, the reason why violent extremist groups and leaders gain support and are able to mobilise teeming masses of people into their ranks can essentially be traced back to the failure of governance and dysfunctional governance.
“You have children being raised with no sense of future, no jobs, and no basic services. All that is needed is a charismatic leader to emerge and mobilise them,” he said.
He listed rampant poverty, deepening inequality, historical grievances between communities, and the collapse of education as some of the factors creating fertile ground for radicalisation.
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He stated that the PAVE Network was working with governments and communities in the North-West to develop state and local action plans against violent extremism, stressing that solutions must be holistic and not limited to military deployments.
“If our approach is simply law enforcement — deploy the police, deploy the military — but people still cannot get jobs, cannot be educated, cannot access healthcare or housing, then we are not addressing the problem. We are simply wasting money on law enforcement,” he warned.
The PAVE chairman argued that lasting peace could only be achieved if governance was strengthened at the grassroots.
He urged Nigerians to take more interest in state electoral processes to ensure credible leadership at the local government level.
“We are advocating for reforming and enabling local governance, strengthening local governments, and ensuring local government autonomy. Credible persons must emerge from council elections, and communities must be empowered to take ownership of peacebuilding efforts.
“We want governors and state governments to work together so that they address not just the security impact but also the underlying causes,” he said.
He also called for regional approaches to insecurity, saying isolated efforts by individual states would not yield sustainable solutions.
While, making her own submission, Adegoke said that the Geneva-based GCERF had been working in Nigeria since 2016 to strengthen resilience against extremist recruitment, particularly among women and youth.
“Our aim is basically to build the resilience of communities to prevent recruitment into violent extremist groups. We do this by providing grants to civil society to work primarily at the community level, specifically with women and youth, to resist the pull factors of violent extremism,” Adegoke explained.
She said that GCERF had supported non-governmental organisations piloting interventions in North-Central and North-West states but was now moving to scale up those interventions in partnership with the Office of the National Security Adviser.
According to her, the ongoing review of Nigeria’s Policy Framework and National Action Plan (PFNAP) for preventing and countering violent extremism provides an opportunity for a more systematic and coordinated approach.
“Our aim is to support ONSA through PAVE and the Citizens’ Knowledge Hub to ensure innovative solutions are integrated into local and state action plans. Through this, we hope to achieve a coordinated regional and eventually national approach to preventing violent extremism,” she said.
She described engagement as “the beginning of a new phase,” noting that the media had a critical role to play in mainstreaming discussions on security and amplifying solutions rather than just reporting violent incidents.
