Kano State: Stakeholders call for extension of EU Peace Building Programme

Stakeholders in Kano state, the second biggest commercial city in Nigeria have called for the extension of the European Union and Agents for Citizens-Driven Transformation, EU/ACT, a peace building programme in the country.

The programme aims at strengthening community engagement toward peace building and conflict management in Nigeria.

The National Coordinator of Civil Society Organization for Conflict Resolution in Nigeria, CS-CRIN,  Adeniyi Aremu, while giving a report in a media briefing said the EU four-year programme is billed to end next year but communities are asking for the programme to be extended to the next four years for more success to be recorded as well as its sustainability.

He said the programme, has trained 120 volunteers as “Peace Advocates” and deployed them to 10 local government areas including the eight metropolitan LGAs as well as Rogo and Sumaila local government areas.

“During the inauguration of the Peace Advocates, there was this call that was made to the European Union by the communities in unison for the programme to be extended in Nigeria, as this will help the Civil Society base and the communities to grow and to develop faster with what the EU funded programme has done in Nigeria.

“They don’t want them to just come and go, they want sustainability of the programme that was why they called for the extension,” said Aremu.

He said the NGO is also partnering with Kano state police command to train the volunteers in the areas of community policing and intelligence gathering to reduce violence.

According to him, with funding support from  EU/ACT workshop on conflict management and interfaith has been held, where stakeholders agreed on the need for tolerance and peaceful coexistence to be preached in sermons, even as they call on Government to create Jobs for the youth.

”We also trained religious leaders and organization to use their platforms to promote and preach peace to their followers. From findings and responses from the religious bodies, unemployment was identified as major bedrock of violence. We called on the government to create enabling environment.

“Under the EU/ACT programme we have also been able to hold a workshop on Extra- Judicial and Human killings, Political and Urban violence, as well as hate speech as Nigeria, prepares for the 2023 general elections.“

He said under the programme, CS-CSRIN has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, with “Sports Without Borders Association” (SWIBODA), an NGO to promote peace among youths with the hope to build sporting facilities for them, especially people with special needs when the land is provided by the association.

Representative of SWIBODA, Abdulgafa Oladimeji said the association, which has been in existence for many years is for talent hunt in sporting activities, stressing that some renowned names in sports in Nigeria were products of the association’s efforts.

“We are focusing on people with disabilities in sports this time for inclusiveness. There is more attention on people with ability in sports but disability sport is also gaining attention globally. We have a lot of them here in Kano already winning local and international medals. So this partnership, although general, will focus more on people with disability in sports,” Oladimeji explained

The NGO has planned to organize more programmes in line with its mandate before the year runs out.

PIAK