Forestalling Conflict Through Early Warning and Early Response Mechanism in Apo District, Abuja

Insurgent violence in Nigeria, is yet to abate but rather has escalated into different uncontrollable dimensions. More than one decade after the issue of Boko haram began and despite numerous attempts by the state and other stakeholders to stop the violence, it has kept on escalating from Boko haram to ISIS in West Africa, to ISWAP, to cattle rustling and violent herders only to mention but a few. More to it is the willingness of gullible Nigerians to be recruited into the sects and cause havoc to their supposed fatherland. Although scholars differ on the cause(s) of the violence, there is a strong unanimity that the violence has created complex emergencies, including loss of lives, high levels of diseases, poverty, socioeconomic disparities, rising gender inequality, educational decline, loss of revenue and income, internal displacement, and many less tangible costs

The Nigerian government’s chances of effectively managing the escalating violence appear to be more compounded by multiple state government and non-state actors’ responses. Many southern Nigerian communities and some part of the northern states are announcing bans and quit notices on open-grazing and pastoralists respectively. In the southeast, violent clashes have been recorded between the Nigerian military forces and the Eastern Security Network (ESN), this is not to insinuate that other regions in the south do not have peculiar security challenges that they grapple with. The ESN was formed by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to tackle emerging security challenges in the southeast region. These developing trends are heralded by encouragements from top-level public office holders for private citizens to bear arms and defend themselves in the face of terror. The Nigerian government is to stay ahead of the challenges, from combating existing violence to managing emerging threats and some non-state actors’ unpatriotic responses. Rather than the above therefore, the government has been reactive to issues of such.

Beyond these reactive interventions; the economic degradation that states suffer whilst embroiled in violent conflict through loss of livelihoods, destruction of property, loss of trade and foreign investments demonstrates why a proactive rather than reactive approach should be adopted and encouraged. Thus, the situation is not too late to salvage as we have experienced pockets of violence in Abuja that is unfortunately the seat of power. We have had the famous experience of the END SARS PROTEST where allegedly, government sponsored terrorists were hired to burn down goods and properties of businessmen in Apo, while communities in Apo like Wumba, Wassaa etc, got a fair share of the attack as they were attacked, houses were burnt, shops were looted and goods were carted away.

It is not enough for us to sit down arm-crossed believing that it is passed END SARS protest. Remember, the event was already given a religious coloration. It was alleged that Muslim youth were mobilized and from the testimonies of those who were apprehended, they were given #500, #1500, etc to attack businesses of Christians as the protest was an anti- Buhari protest and evidenced on the fact that Buhari is a Muslim president. Consequently, PEACE IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF WAR and relative peace in this context might suppose re-strategy by those who are hurt.  

In all of these, I have chosen a project that will be proactive in nature and will help in the re-orientation of the youth who are the face we see during conflict and by so doing, I will establish a strong bond between the two major religions by building their resilience to countering the moves of the faceless drivers of conflicts and ensuring peace in their communities.