WilliamsDanjuma, Gombe
The Federal Government has brought together stakeholders in Nigeria’s peacebuilding sector towards developing a new National Peace Policy.
The new National Peace Policy is aimed at strengthening conflict prevention, coordination and sustainable peace across the country, according to Hafsah Matazu, Programme Manager, Office for Strategic Preparedness and Resilience (OSPRE).
Hafsah, in a statement sent to our correspondent in Gombe said, OSPRE and the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), in collaboration with Triple Peace Africa, had convened a three-day technical workshop themed “Building an Inclusive National Infrastructure for Peace and Resilience.”
The meeting brought together Ministries, Departments and Agencies, legislators, State peace commissions, subnational institutions, civil society organisations and peacebuilding practitioners from across Nigeria.
Participants during the three-day technical workshop agreed that Nigeria requires a genuinely whole-of-Government and whole-of-society peace architecture connecting federal institutions with state and local governments, State peace commissions, civil society and community-level actors.
They also called for the adoption of a wholly new framework to reflect the realities and opportunities confronting the country.
Speaking earlier at the commencement of the workshop, Director General of OSPRE, Mr Chris Ngwodo, said the initiative was intended to co-create a framework that aligns Nigeria’s contemporary peacebuilding efforts and incorporates developments that have emerged since the previous attempt to develop a National Peace Policy in 2012.
On his part, the Director General of IPCR, Dr Joseph Ochogwu, said the policy would “serve as the normative and operational spine of Nigeria’s peacebuilding architecture.”
In his remarks, the Special Adviser to the President on Homeland Security, Major General Adeyinka Famadewa (rtd), said the framework would provide “a systematic approach to conflict prevention, involving all stakeholders and moving us from reaction after the fact toward anticipation and prevention before the fact.”
In his goodwill message, the CEO of Triple Peace Africa, Dr Paul Nyulaku, described the emerging framework as representing a new generation consensus among stakeholders on building sustainable peace in Nigeria.
Also at workshop was the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Peacebuilding and Social Cohesion, Honourable Sadiq Abbas Tafida, who pledged the commitment of the House of Representatives to supporting and adequately resourcing implementation of the policy.
The Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr Lanre Issa-Onilu, urged stakeholders to anchor the policy in Nigeria’s national values and ensure that it serves as an instrument for civic mobilisation and social cohesion.
At the end of the workshop, participants signed a communiqué committing themselves to greater strategic collaboration, institutional coordination and alignment of peacebuilding activities.
The outcomes is expected to feed into further consultations across the Federation towards the development of an inclusive Policy framework and a stronger National Infrastructure for Peace and Resilience.
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