By Mohammed Mohammed
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC), Nigeria’s Chapter of the Transparency International (TI) in Nigeria and the Open Society Foundation (OSF) have advocated the entrenchment of Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) initiative as mitigation for insecurity conflict resolution in Nigerian communities.
Coordinator of Peace and Security Department of CISLAC, Bertha Ogbimi, speaking at a stakeholder’s workshop which held in Keffi, Nasarawa State, acknowledged that communities in Nasarawa State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), were trained on how to report issues after relevant investigation of factual evidence and to the relevant authorities, in order to avoid miscommunication, conflict, danger or harm to the informants their families and people around them.
She said there is a need for the various security agencies that are saddled with the responsibility of upholding security in the country respond timely to reports of conflict or issues, stressing that this is why the Police, NSDC, Vigilante, Community leaders, Forest Guard/ and Hunters were programmed for the workshop which had over 20 participants.
According to her, the success story in Adamawa State inspired CISLAC to have a discussion of insecurity in the North-central to imbibe the Adamawa strategy which has improved security in that part of the country.
She said: “Early warning and Response System is a tool whose primary objective is to prevent the escalation of violence that could jeopardise the integrity of individuals and democratic governance.
“The EWRS are mechanisms for preventing and addressing conflicts that focus on the systematic collection, processing and analysis of information (quantitative or qualitative) about conflict situations for the purpose of warning decision-makers so that they can take measures or implement actions that will avoid the emergence of escalation of conflict.”
According to her, the security personnel lack adequate training that would enable them to interface with civilians in order to address internal security challenges as they more often resort to brutality. Also, the application of force has often led to some sort of collateral damage, she added.
However, in a joint communique signed by the Executive Director, CISLAC/TI, Mr. Auwal Musa Rafsanjani and Messrs. Salome Augustine and Ahmad Zayyad, who were community observers, the underlisted resolution and recommendations were the takeaways from the workshop:
The workshop, the CISLAC Director, said was aimed at building the capacity of community observers for robust collaboration, communication, coordination and collective support for early warning and conflict prediction mechanisms, which are central in conflict prevention.
It had a technical session with presentation titled: “Building Resilience in Communities through effective early warning system.”
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Identifying a credible and reputable system or authority to relate Early Warning signal to prevent potential associated-risk and retaliation. 2. Forming a formidable force through community network building on Early Warning signal reporting to avert breach of trust and facilitate collective actions that drives confidential response.
3. Stimulating trust in reporting process of Early Warning signal leveraging identified platforms or reputable institutions for timely information dissemination.
4. Ensuring data accuracy and information specificity in Early Warning signal reporting to secure trust and elicit timely response.
5. Institutionalising peace parameter in conflict prevention, while understanding the criticality of inter-connected key stakeholders, geographical target and gender inclusion.
6. Immediate consideration for gender mainstreaming, human rights, political and socio-economic empowerment for women and youth in Early Warning system and process to promote inclusive participation and adequate response and:
7. Identifying appropriate institution or stakeholder for targeted information on Early Warning signal for appropriate response, while promoting inter-agency cooperation among responders.