A high-level international symposium to accelerate the restoration of normalcy to the North East of Nigeria is taking place in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Convened by the Consortium of Civil Society Organisations the 2-day programme tagged “The North East Nigeria symposium on Reintegration, Reconciliation and Resettlement”, will also assess the effectiveness of the Nigerian government’s “Operation Safe Corridor’, the project that implements the de-radicalisation of extremists.
Delivering a keynote address, Dr Garba Abari the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency told the meeting that the government was determined to accelerate the process of de-radicalisation as well as Reconciliation, Resettlement and Reintegration of all those in the area.
“We are emphasising the importance of community involvement in the process and we are glad to be involved and partnering with all agencies …because those who have been radicalized were actually victims and they are returning to a community that has also been victimized by insurgent activities that means all citizens in the community to which the De-Radicalised are returning need to have an understanding
“Government is committed to a structure and phases return of IDPs and we can see the effort of the Borno state government is returning displaced persons from Cameroon and resettlement of displaced persons in Maiduguri back to their committees,” he explained.
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The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue is the lead convener of the symposium and its Programme Manager Mme Millicent-Lewis Ojumu explained that the HD applies a bottom-top approach in its policies of re-integration.
She said “to ensure that the process of reintegration is accepted by all, our projects are community-based. We ask the Imams and religious scholars to sit with the community and together address the issues and within the messaging if forgiveness, it was very important to capture the Islamic approach to forgiveness and use that in translating alternative dispute resolution methods to enable people to reach the position of acceptance and forgiveness.”
HD also explained that the process of reintegration in Nigeria has departed from the traditional model as reintegration is taking place while there is still an active conflict in that area.
According to HD, “stakeholders working on reconciliation, resettlement and reintegration are having to do so in an environment faced with active hostilities, reduced funding and faced with other risks such as covid-19 pandemic”.
The symposium it says will identify emerging issues, gaps challenges and come up with recommendations for strengthening the design and delivery of peace-building, reintegration, and reconciliation and resettlement efforts in the North East of Nigeria.
The symposium being attended by the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Wendy Campbell, the Head of European Union Delegation in Abuja, Ketil Karlsen is also co-hosted by the International Crisis Group, Conciliation Resources, the Network for civil Society Borno as well as the National Orientation Agency.
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