The Bacground to Setting Up C4PS

Background on The Setting up of A Coalition for Peace and Security in Nigeria (Focus on Northern Nigeria)- C4PS

Northern Nigeria is at a crossroad; conflicts, stagnation and poverty is ravishing the land. There seems to be conflict and insecurity in every corner of the North, ‘boko haram’ insurgency in the North east states of Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi, Taraba and Adamawa and Kano and Kaduna in the North West. There are religious and ethnic conflicts in Plateau, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Benue, Taraba, Kogi, Niger, Kwara, Kebbi and Sokoto, every state has witnessed some form of security breach or the other. The north can be said to be facing a great challenge of security that is eating away its economic and human resources. Business in affected areas have reduced, people are living in constant fear of attacks and development work by local and international NGOs has become slow due to inadequate enabling environment.

Additionally the rights and needs of those affected by the conflicts are not being appropriately met. It is no hidden fact that the North even before the heightening of the insurgency has the worst development statistics, for example; The poorest states are in the north west and north-east (NBS, 2011), maternal mortality is worst in north- east at 1,716/100,000 live births against 337/100,000 live births in the south west. In education primary school completion rate in the north east is between 1.3- 12.6% against 61.2-98.8% in the south west states. Similarly youth literacy is at 48.9-58.6% in the same north-east as against 95.8-99% in the south west. Again access to water in the north east is a poor 1-37% compared to 73-83% in the south-west. (All according to MICs 2009 as reported in 2010 MGDs Report). Now with more than two years of conflicts the statistics would be even worse.

The federal and state governments have been doing their bits to respond to and even avert these conflicts. This is mostly the usual use of force and temporary reconciliation with some empowerment and relief support, which are yet to bring about an end to the violence. As such the violent conflicts and restiveness continue and the security checks points remain everywhere. At the last count 4000 people, including women and children have lost their lives to the conflicts in the north, thousands of properties including churches and mosques have been destroyed worth billions of Naira.  Additionally investment and business flow into the region is at its lowest ebb

One age group that has become prominent in every conflict, crisis or security breach is the youth. They remain the foot soldiers which fuel the embers of violence in all conflicts. Most of these youths are idle, unemployed, without skills and adequate education. They are children of the poor and the vulnerable who are under the manipulation of elites and politicians. One ugly feature of these youths is their constant abuse of drugs, which influence and encourage their action. So the youths of the north can be simply described as “Unskilled, drugged, unemployed, poor and frustrated”. Then there are women and children who remain the most affected by the conflicts and violence. Thousands of women have become widows, without a breadwinner for the family and many children have become orphans and displaced without access to essential needs and services.

With this situation in the north several efforts have and are being made to improve it. Several pro-northern and pro national organizations have held conferences and summits on the issue and have continued to promote peace for the development of the region. Others have gone forward to foster dialogue among conflicting parties and even hold skills trainings and empowerment schemes for youths. Yet these efforts have remained isolated, small and mostly unsustainable.

Yet one big gap in all the efforts is the absence of an overwhelmingly citizen concern on the plight of the north and their massive participation, individually and communally towards ameliorating the situation. This is also against the background of the absence of well coordinated and collaborative effort by the civil society organizations working in the region. Many of such organizations do not even play any role towards ensuring peace and security in their immediate communities, despite the fact that it affects their work directly. This absence of a broad based network of organizations, working or lobbying in effective coordinative uniformity and contributive format to bring about a massive awareness and action in communities across the north is very glaring.

Such an action could cause the inculcation of community level initiatives to ensure permanent dialogue among conflicting interests, early identification of flashpoints and change of behavior among the youths while also providing succor and charity support to unfortunate victims. It could also provide much needed data and information for planning and evidence based documentation or control of conflicts. There will also be the advantages of strength from unity and the learning and sharing of best practices from each other as well as that of capacity building in the area of peace and security.

After a careful deliberation of the above issues, a group of civil society organization who met in Kaduna on the 20^th of April, 2013 unanimously agreed to form a coalition for the purpose of promoting peace and security in the whole of Nigeria but with a focus on northern Nigeria.

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