French ambassador to Nigeria, Jerome Pasquier, said Nigeria can surmount its security challenges, particularly banditry, if the government, local and religious authorities in communities would dialogue more.
The French envoy, while noting that the northern region, particularly Zamfara State was bedevilled with violence, low access to education among others, said the challenges cannot be resolved through the interventions of nongovernmental organisations and civil society organisations alone.
According to him, all actors must be engaged and dialogue remains key.
Pasquier was represented by the head of the corporation and cultural affairs, Rafael Pont, at an interactive meeting to improve security, peace development in Zamfara State, organised by Pastoral Resolve (PARE) with funding from the French Embassy PISCCA Project in Abuja.
“One of the key things in resolving this crisis is dialogue, engaging all the actors on ground; the political side, local authorities, traditional rulers and leaders. So, it’s not only one NGO or CSO that has the power to resolve everything, it’s a matter of tackling the challenges together “, he said.
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The project coordinator, PARE, Umar Maraduna, regretted that security challenges in Zamfara State have only escalated since the mid2000 decade, resulting in the current state of insecurity and consequently high level of poverty and food crisis.
According to him, Zamfara State is the epicentre of the ongoing crises of insecurity characterised by cattle rustling, kidnapping for ransom, raiding, and mass killings, particularly in the rural areas.
Maraduna further regretted that despite the efforts by state governments to engage with the citizens, they have generally been inadequate since most of the institutions of government have inadequate capacity and experience in analysing and addressing social, economic, and environmental crises, which are the major drivers of insecurity.
He, however, expressed optimism that the meeting would provide another platform to discuss the problems in Zamfara with the view to creating a broader understanding of existing opportunities for intervention.
Nasir Usman, director, Zamfara State Directorate of Nongovernmental Organisations, while analysing the impact of insecurity on food production, said the state’s production dropped by 30 percent. According to him, the hardest-hit region is the most fertile farmlands where most foods are produced.
