Group calls for sustained effort against insurgency 

By Diana Omueza

Neem Foundation, an NGO, has called for collective effort to sustain the fight against insurgency in the North-Eastern region and empower women and youths affected by it.

Mrs Fatima Akuli, Executive Director of the foundation, made the call in Abuja at the “Time to Tell the Truth Campaign” launch organised by the group.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Neem Foundation is a leading crisis response organisation committed to promoting the protection and well-being of populations and communities living in contexts affected by conflicts, violence and fragility.

Akuli said that collective effort was needed to wage war against extremism, empower those aftected, counter narratives and change the society at large.

“We are here because we feel that in the past decade and a half, the terrorists have been operating in our country and even though the military has made a lot of gains in pushing them back.

“They seem to be expanding to new frontiers especially in the NorthWest and they still seem to be able to have capacity to recruit.

“So we feel that this is the time that we stand up and we counter the message and the narratives that they are using to entice young people to join the group despite everything.”

Akuli said that when Nigerians combine efforts, extremism would end and extremists would repent and be reintegrated into their families to foster unity.

“My message to Nigerians is one of hope, because I think if we all work together, we can defeat extremism, we can remake and change our society.

“We must use the resilience that we’ve build and the knowledge to know that as a country if we come together we can really end extremism.

“This campaign is targeted to mostly the kinds of people who join these kinds of extremist groups and though there is a misconception that it’s only youths, we’ve seen a lot of people there.”

She said that based on the research carried out by the foundation, there were multiple pathways into extremist groups which raised concerns.

According to her, women have been discovered to also join these extremist groups for various reasons, to cushion the impact of the economic or for social reasons which is worrisome.

“So this disinformation campaign is targeting all of those different pathways and groups.

“And our expectation is that we form a coalition in Nigeria and in Niger Republic and we hope that it will grow across the Lake Chad of like-minded people,” she said.

Dr Garba Abari, the Director-General of National Orientation Agency (NOA) said that there was a need to project a counter narrative to dissuade extremists from their beliefs and practices.

He said that stakeholders and the concerned states governments must deliberately counter the extremists’ ideology which is against the tenets and teachings of Islam.

“The only way we can change the narrative is to come up with superior narrative which is already agreed upon by the Islamic community, by all the major sects of Islam and bring out the truth against the policies of boko haram.

“Because what is the argument of the boko haram, they claim to be the authentic, the cleanest and the purest form of Islamists and that is their position.

“But for everything that they have done by way of their actions, by way of their practice of the religion, by way of their relationship with others, is completely a negation of what the Islamic doctrines in the Islamic religion and of all it tenets teaches.”

He said that the NOA was working and ready to partner with donors to deliberately deploy the alternative counter narratives in different languages including the French Language.

This, he said, was because the extremists now cut across the entire West African Sub-Region and Nigeria is surrounded by French-speaking countries.

Speaking on behalf of the sttaes, Mr Baba Kura-Jato, Borno State Cmmissioner for Home Affairs, said that comparatively in the last thirteen years, there has been a shift from the holy kinetic approach that has brought the insurgency to an end.

Kura-Jato lauded the government of the state and said that it was making more efforts to ensure that original inhabitats affected by extremist activities and insurgency returned to their ancestral homes.

According to him, the places which are not inhabited are hibernating spots for the insurgents.

“But with the return of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) back to their respective areas, there is also no place for them to stay and perpetrate their nefarious activities.”

He said that the borders surrounding the state were still porous and in close proximity with other countries where insurgency was hitting hard within the West and Central African sub region.

Kura-Jato stressed that the state government was relentless and working tirelessly to ensure that the state remained secure and void of extremist inversions and a re-ignition of the decade long extremist activities.

Similarly, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, Commissioner for Refugees, Migrant and Internally Displaced Persons, who was represented by the Chief of Staff, Barr. Grace Ofonime-Ubong said that the commission was tackling root cause issues and aftermath of insurgency in extremist affected states.

He said that the commission was focused on tackling the impacts caused by insurgency and ways to rehabilitate and reintegrate IDPs into the society.

“Before we talk about tackling these issues, we have to look at the root causes which is why we are here, because it is the violent extremist activities that cause these displacements in the first place.

“So at the commission we try to see how we can help protect and assist the IDPs, because we have the activities of the extremists affecting their daily lives, their education, causing unemployment and a lot of sufferings especially for the women and children.

“So we have some pilot projects that have kick-started and some have run through some of the states in Nigeria like the project Scale-Up.

“The Scale-Up is a project that is meant to empower the youth, the children and also the women, this project is geared towards making sure that the unemployment that is caused as a result of these extremist activities is succoured.

“That means these people should gain some kind of skill for themselves to bounce back to life and also we have the Project Zero Hunger because once there is extremist activities, a lot of persons suffer, especially basic needs,” he said.

He said that the government was doing all to ensure that IDPs were protected and assisted to ensure efficient reintegration into the society and that it was open to partnerships while it took the lead in rehabilitating, empowering and reintegrating IDPs. (NAN)