Peace building for national reconciliation and economic revival (Part 2)

This is the second and final part of the article on peacebuilding for national reconciliation and economic turnaround in Nigeria. Whatever we need to invest in the peacebuilding effort will be worth it. We will need a short-term and a long-term strategy. Continuing from where we left off last week, we need a strong emphasis on a short-term strategy for peace in the Northeast and in the Southeast geopolitical zones.

Last week, we advocated for a non-kinetic outreach programme of political, socio-cultural, and religious re-education in the Northeast targeting members of Boko Haram and their families. That effort should be broad-based and extended to members of the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) and other identifiable terrorist groups or cells in the zone. The peace-building effort in the Northeast should be extended to involve a collaborative sub-regional effort with Chad and Niger, countries that contributed members of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) that fights terrorism in the Lake Chad basin. At the geopolitical level, the peace-building effort should involve a structured and well-designed effort by the North East Development Commission (NEDC), which has statutorily been assigned peace-building as a major mandate. All the other five states of the zone should follow the good example of Adamawa State by establishing their own State Peace Building Commissions (SPBCs), and every local government in the zone should establish a Local Government Peace Building Committee (LGPBC) to form a broad-based collaborative effort, working with international peacebuilding organisations, development partners, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and civil society organisations (CSOs) to build peace in the North East geopolitical zone.

In the Southeast geopolitical zone, the peace-building effort should require de-proscribing the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), since it was not a violent organisation when it was proscribed. A key condition for its de-proscription would be for IPOB to disband its Eastern Security Network (ESN). With the de-proscription of IPOB and the disbandment of ESN, the Southeastern state governments and the ethnic/social/cultural group, Ohaneze Ndigbo, which has a new leadership, should work tirelessly in collaboration with the Federal Government and local and international NGOs to build peace in the zone. That should not be too difficult because a typical Igbo man or Igbo boy will naturally prefer devoting his time and energy to doing a legitimate business to make money than engaging in terrorism or violent acts. With the achievement of peace and security stabilisation in the Southeast, the coast should then be clear for the political negotiation for the release of the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.

“With the achievement of peace and security stabilisation in the Southeast, the coast should then be clear for the political negotiation for the release of the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.”

The medium- to long-term strategy for peacebuilding in Nigeria should involve the establishment of the Nigerian National PeaceBuilding Commission (NNPBC), establishing State Peace Building Commissions (SPBCs) in all the states of the federation, developing a National Peace Building Strategy Paper (NPBSP), and establishing a National Peace Building Council (NPBC) comprising the NNPBC, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), the Regional Development Commissions (RDCs), state PBCs, and co-opted representatives of national and international peacebuilding organisations/NGOs operating in Nigeria. NPBC should meet quarterly.

The Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) should be engaged and mandated to come up with a draft National Peace Building Strategy Paper (NPBSP). The NPBSP should set the roadmap for peacebuilding in Nigeria and should become the basis for engaging with national and international organisations that operate in the peacebuilding space. The NPBSP will set out ambitious but realisable peacebuilding goals and define clearly the roles to be played by key national and subnational peacebuilding organs: NNPBC, State Peace Building Commissions (SPBCs), Local Government Peace Building Committees (LGPBCs), regional development commissions (RDCs), local and international NGOs, and development partners.

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A key aspect of the national peacebuilding strategy is good governance and democratic reforms, for it is impracticable to build peace in the absence of social, political, and economic justice. This is an area where there will be a great deal of pushback from politicians and related co-travellers who will want to maintain the status quo for personal and perceived geopolitical interests. However, we must begin to develop the required resolve to persuade ourselves that Nigeria will not make much progress and achieve sustainable peace without political and economic reforms. A case in point is the devolution of power for the establishment of state and municipal police units as it is in other climes. For example, the United States of America alone has more than 18,000 police departments or jurisdictions, compared to just one in Nigeria, the Nigeria Police Force.

Another key aspect should be emphasis on human capital development, agricultural development, rural development, and water and sanitation. A greater focus on rural development will improve the quality of life of rural dwellers in Nigeria and shield them from negative influences by non-state actors that can lead to divided loyalties and the breach of peace.

Two key objectives of the NPBSP should be to significantly reduce the annual security and defence vote as a percentage of the national budget over a five-to-ten-year time frame while at the same time ensuring that defence and security needs are adequately provided for in the context of a peaceful Nigeria and a growing economy and thus release funds for peace-inducing development efforts and develop a programme for the accelerated reduction and decommissioning of internally displaced persons (IDP) camps around the country.

The NPBSP will also assign key roles to community leaders and religious leaders in peacebuilding at the community level. Finally, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should include peacebuilding as item no. 9 in his Renewed Hope Agenda, to be driven by the proposed Nigerian National PeaceBuilding Commission (NNPBC). Developing an elaborate parallel national peace-building structure to the security and defence structure is necessary, but it will be at a mere fraction of the security and defence budget. Together, a well-coordinated kinetic and non-kinetic strategy will deliver enduring peace and security faster.

Mr Igbinoba is Team Lead/CEO at ProServe Options Consulting, Lagos