The Federal Government has said communities across Nigeria hold the key to tackling insecurity, stressing that to end the problem, local efforts must be supported rather than supplanted.
Director General of the Office for Strategic Preparedness and Resilience (OSPRE), Chris Ngwodo, stated this in Kano during a one-day policy dialogue on Building an Inclusive National Infrastructure for Peace and Resilience in Nigeria.
“Our theory of change is that communities know best the ways to tackle the problems confronting them directly. They have the lived experience of those issues. The role of the federal government is not to supplant those efforts but to support them, to resource them, and to work collaboratively with communities,” Ngwodo said.
He explained that the initiative is a national framework designed to align grassroots peacebuilding with federal support, covering all states, local governments and communities.
The framework, he said, will strengthen prevention, dialogue, mediation, early warning and coordinated responses to emerging risks such as banditry, farmer-herder clashes, communal violence and pre-election conflicts.
He added that while security institutions have been strengthened, sustainable peace requires investments in resilience, social cohesion and coordination among state and non-state actors.
The DG urged participants to take back the message that communities are not alone. “There are allies elsewhere who want to support them, who stand in solidarity with them, and who will continue to champion their cause at the federal level,” he said.
Prof. Nanji Umoh of the University of Jos described the policy as “bottom-up,” saying it focuses on hearing directly from communities rather than imposing solutions from above.
A participant at the dialogue, Sulaiman Iguda Ladan, a chief lecturer at Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic who has researched banditry for six years, cautioned that the menace of banditry is taking on a new dimension.
He explained that while senior bandit leaders in Jibia and Basari local governments had abandoned the practice, younger bandits continued due to lack of livelihood alternatives.
“The youth now see banditry as an occupation because it has been allowed to thrive for 15 years. They no longer attack in large numbers but operate in twos or threes, targeting market days to rob traders of money, seize motorcycles and rustle cattle,” Ladan said.
He warned that unless government provides sustainable means of livelihood, low-scale banditry will persist.
“The implication is that banditry will continue unless a sustainable means of livelihood is found for them,” he added.
The Kano dialogue brought together stakeholders including government agencies, traditional rulers, religious leaders, civil society, academia, women and youth groups.
News Credit to our media partner Daily Trust .
