By Chimezie Godfrey
The Centre for Information,Technology and Development (CITAD) has advocated for non-kinetic approach to restore peace in Northern Nigeria.
The Executive Director, CITAD, Y.Z. Ya’u on Friday in Abuja launched a book titled,” Boko-Haram: Community Perceptions of Dialogue and Reconciliation in Northern Nigeria”, geared towards dialogue, reconciliation and peace building, at the community level.
Ya’u explained that the book seeks to shed light on what needs to be done in order to re-establish peace in the troubled zone of the Northern Nigeria.
Speaking on why some communities were able to resist Boko-Haram from gaining grounds in their communities, and why others could not, he stressed that community resilience is the key to resisting insurgency.
He however, pointed out that community resilience can not be achieved without engaging the communities in dialogue, and consultations, to get them to understand the nitty-gritty of the need for peace and reconciliation.
He therefore opined that lasting peace cannot be achieved through military actions, adding that military action is not a sufficient solution to achieving peace in the country.
He said,”We have actually done this in Bauchi, Gombe and Yobe last week, we are just continuing media presentation, we’ve decided to do this rather than the conventional Nigeria book launch where you give politicians hoping that they give you money but nobody cares to call the masses.
“Our interest is for the public to hear our message that is why we opted for a media briefing. You know through the media, the message will get across to relevant stakeholders. With a book lunch everything starts and stopped at the hall, if you get your money, fine, you go and celebrate. If they come and make promises and refused to deliver after, we will start suffering, so , it is not worth the effort.
“Development is the key focus of our work. We see technology as tool which you can facilitate development processes. Our vision is one of a democratic and self reliant country. You can’t get a democratic and self reliance country in the context of instability. So peace is an important ingredient of development, for that reason peace building efforts have been one of the central plank of our work for the past ten years.
“Boko Haram has been one of the pillars of insecurity, and lack of peace in the country, and because of the efforts and attention devoted to this aspect we have over the last eight years, supported research publications for at least nine different books on this subject, each looking at one issue or the other all helping to shed light on what needs to be done in order to re-establish peace in communities that are affected, via peace building.
“We started by first looking at the role of both state and non state actors in terms of human rights abuse since eight years back. One of the flagship of this issue was the one of community resilience, trying to understand why certain areas were able to successfully defeat Boko-Haram and didn’t allow them to get rooted even though they are in thesame zone, and why other communities were not able to do that. And we found that one of the major elements that determines how communities were able to respond was a matter of community resilience.
“And central to community resilience is the question of cohesion within the community. Where there is lack of cohesion, there will never be unity of purpose. There will never be the ability for leaders to mobilize people to come together to confront common adversaries and be able to succeed. Instead you will have people working across each other with suspicion, and lack of trust, and so forth.
“And central also to us is the fact that you cannot restore resilience without engagement and consultations in building understanding with different stakeholders, so, we thought perhaps is now time to also begin to think about how to build a culture of consultation within the communities that are affected by Boko Haram insurgents.”
Ya’u noted that military action alone can not restore lasting peace in the crises ridden communities, especially such crises as insurgency that is witnessed in the North-East zone of the country.
“We also take note that historically, across the globe no case of insurgency had been successfully won, and lasting peace re-established on the basis of only military action. Military action can curtail and limit the deaths, but ultimately, peace building has to be right at the discussion table. The IRS in Ireland and so forth, all happen to come together. So in spite of the British military mights, they were not able to militarily defeat insurgency they had to eventually come together, discuss and arrive at terms of settlement.
“So, we begin to pose this question that having realized that military action is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for restoration of peace building, we must go beyond that to find a way in which other elements that can complement military action is also in place. We will work on a two track approach fighting militarily making it impossible for them to operate. But also at thesame time involving citizens, and people to understand that peace building is a collective effort. Everybody has to play his or her role.
“Here you have people who have committed atrocious crimes, murder of hundreds of 1000s, displaced millions of people across different parts of the country, and even outside the country. And people who have raped women, adopted people, people who have forced people to carry guns to fight a battle unwillingly, people who have lost their loved ones, husbands, children , and you are asking them to negotiate, such an order is emotionally difficult, and also in practical terms is really delicate to do, but it is not substitute for lasting peace in the society.
“So if you refuse to engage, in the delicate, and emotionally disturbing consultations and negotiations, you will then live forever with an insecurity that you are unable to address, and that means that the cost in the long run will actually be much more than coming to terms with the challenges that the consultations will bring, and the cost of human lives.
“Once you contained the military, you have a sense of deja vu of things that we have won the battle and you become relaxed during that time, when you’re unsuspecting that’s when they will bring the attack to you.
“So we think it’s important to begin to think of the parameters of such a discussion, how can it be done, and under what conditions can the discussions take place? Now we decided to consult different stakeholders, women, youth, government officials, and traditional rulers, religious leaders across the frontline states of Yobe, Adamawa, and Borno states to hear what they think about what we think of about dialogue, what think about consultations and how can it be done.
“And so this book that we are presenting here too is actually a result of such consultations, so in particular there are three key chapters, each reporting on these consultations. One of the report from Yobe, the other from Adamawa, and also because we are learning and wanting to compare lessons, is a chapter addressing how Kano which also suffered a lot of Boko Haram attacks. Kano decided to engage it’s citizens, and other stakeholders to think about community approach to responding to the crises.And in the end they were able to overcome Boko-Haram unlike the others.
“So, we commissioned someone in Kano which an example of a typical non-kinetic approach to restoration of peace, and therefore what lesson can we learn from the Kano experience. What can be adopted from the North-East, what can be outrightly rejected as well. And so we posed that side by side so that the public would understand what exactly we’re talking about when we talk about non-kinetic for achieving peace building,” he said.
The CITAD Executive Director, noted that women are critical part of the peace building process as they constitute the largest victims of Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria.
“We then also thought that there two critical stakeholders whose views are very, very important and whose role in peace building is central, one is women. Women constitute the largest victims of Boko Haram.They have lost parents.They have lost husbands, they have lost children, but over and above today, we are still saying Bring Back Our Girls, because so many hundreds of girls were abducted.
“And I think when we’re talking about peace building, then their voice is important and what role you think they can play, so one of the chapter is devoted on understanding how women can play that role.
“The other victims, is actually youth. Youth again have parents, have lost their loved ones, but like the girls they have also been abducted. A lot of people in Boko Haram have been forced to carry guns to fight for Boko Haram not because they believe in Boko Haram but simply because they have been abducted and forced to fight a battle they ever believed in.
“There’s also people who have willingly as a young people have gone into Boko Haram, believing that Boko Haram represents an alternative narrative of justice that they think was lacking in the society,” he said.
Ya’u stressed that building trust between citizens and government is key to achieving lasting peace in the society.
He further said that de-radicalisation program improves on people but
He said,”We know that over this government has also recognized the importance of non kinetic approach and had articulated what is called the rapid de-radicalisation program but that de-radicalisation program actually a top down approach, in which case it is imposed on people, not something that people willingly understand and willingly accept.
“So, in that context, what has happened is that you bring out hundreds of people whom you said they have repented, and you subject them to whatever program be radicalization and at the end of the day, you want to integrate them to a community, a community that does not understand, a community that feels aggrieved of the enormous damages that these characters have done, a community that has not psychologically prepare itself to forgive and therefore when you bring them they will remain isolated.And once they’re isolated, not integrated, they will revert back to the former thing. That is why the radicalization which is top down is not working.
“So, if government wants something that will work it has to be engineered form the bottom so that citizens understand the need whether is forgiveness, whether it is about our ability to live together with someone that I know has killed my son or has killed my daughter, and so forth. I have to set the terms and not somebody set up terms.
“So, these are some of the issues that we are seeing that we need to discuss them. We need to agree on how that can be done and we need to see who can lead that process. And that is the central message that we are presenting in this book.
He called on the incoming administration to consult widely, adding that the country can only be effectively managed when citizens are part of the decision making process.
“My advice to incoming government would be to say that as soon as they are here, they must also consult widely. We know they have an agenda. They have a manifesto. But when you assume government you are not seeking for vote, you are seeking to run a country and a country can only be run effectively when you listen to people, and when you act on the basis of what you are able to gather out of that consultation,” Ya’u advised.
