Group To Sustain Peace-building Campaign In Nigeria

A group, West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), Nigeria, has promised to energise and sustain peace building in Nigeria

Speaking to newsmen, the newly appointed chairman, Board of Directors, Kolawole Olatosimi, said the NGO will strengthen Peace building structures and collaborations with relevant organisations in Nigeria.

Olatosimi, who spoke after taking over from his predecessor, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, at the WENAP 2023 General Assembly held in Abuja titled, ‘Strengthening Peace building Structures: Towards an Enhanced State Citizens Relations in Nigeria,’ said general assembly was preceded by a strategic meeting facilitated by Mercy Corps where it formally presented the Peace Action for Rapid and Transformative Nigerian Early Response (PARTNER) programme to WANEP Board of Director (BoD), Board of Trustees (BoT) and network members.

It described as worrying the rising waves of resource-based, ethnic, and sectarian conflict, criminality, banditry and expanding violent extremism in the North Central and North-West zones of Nigeria that has made the regions increasingly insecure.

Participants acknowledged that multiple initiatives that seek to address the complex causes of violence, community and security responses to drivers and triggers are often piecemeal at best, and ineffectual at worst.

They said existing Early Warning and Early Response (EWER) systems suffer from slow responses, poor coordination, top-down mandates that limit community ownership, weak dispute resolution skills among responders, little political and financial investment as well as leadership structures that exclude women and youth.

The General Assembly resolved to carry out orientations for new members with all WANEP Nigeria policies to be reviewed and signed by BOD just as the board of directors and board of trustees commit to ensuring a smooth transition of leadership from Mercy Corps to WANEP on the PARTNER Project funded by USAID.