Pulse.ng : International Alert commits to peace building, access to justice in Kaduna, Zamfara

By Sani Idris

An NGO, International Alert, has committed to the realisation of peace and enabling access to justice in Kaduna and Zamfara states.

The commitment were made at a conflict, justice and stability workshop organised by the organization, supported by UK International Development.

Addressing newsmen at the sideline of the event, the Country Director of the NGO, Dr. Paul Nyulaku-Bemshima, said the workshop was of multi-stakeholder and focused on planning priority around conflict, access to justice, gender-based violence and sccountability.

He added that International Alert had been operating in Chikun and Jama’a LGA of Kaduna state as well as in Tsafe and Birnin Magaji LGA in Zamfara for the past one year.

Nyulaku-Bemshima also said the NGO established community dialogue platforms to deal with the drivers of conflict and instability in all the locations.

He explained that the workshop was to have an alignment with the priorities at the community, local government and state levels.

He, therefore, said the NGO was trying to use the workshop as an opportunity to establish the alignment among the communities, local and state government.

He said this was to indentify the institutions responsible for picking up and addressing some of the issues the communities were grappling with.

He said they would do an overall review of the successes achieved and what other responses that the local and state government levels did importantly to establish stability in the locations.

According to the country director, the choice of Kaduna and Zamfara state for the project was because they were most affected by conflict in the North West and would enable International Alert to make impact.

He, however, said above all, the two state had been making a lot of efforts in terms of dealing with the drivers of conflict.

“Kaduna has a Peace Commission, Zamfara has also been doing quite a lot in addressing issues of banditry.

“We want to layer this project on top of all they are doing and build upon it and make sure at the end peace and stability return to the North West.”

Commenting on the challenges to the project, he said they were multisectoral and which was why International Alert adopted a multi-dimentional approach in dealing with the issues.

He mentioned the challenges to be around security, where also in certain context the right environment was not available for any form of peaceful dialogue to happen.

“The environment needs to be stabilised with security response, and what other peace dialogue, non security, non cohesive options are available to make sure we reach the desired level of stability.

“Above all the communities cannot do everything for themselves, especially in terms of justice.

“Justice has been denied and people’s rights violated at the community level. There are certain state laws and frameworks that enable communities to deal with the issues and seek redress,” Nyulaku-Bemshima said.

He called for the prioritisation of the role of women in addressing some of the drivers of conflict, and all other stakeholders in achieving peace and stability in the country.

The Executive Director, Global Peace Development, an implementing partner with International Alert, Mr Esike Ebruke, said the workshop was part of the planning and structures designed to ensure the project was inclusive in Kaduna State.

He stressed that the overall objective was to ensure stability, safety and security for every person, irrespective of where he came from.

He stated that when the justice system, the people and traditional system worked, the society would be stable.

Mr Musa Umar, the Executive Director for Voluntary Initiative, a local implementing partner for International Alert in Zamfara, lamenented that the state had been experiencing issues around insecurity, especially banditry.

He also lamented the issues of SGBV with a lot of survivors living without support, while urging the stakeholders to provide enabling environment for services to the survivors.

The Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Hope Affairs, Mr Samuel Aruwan, commended the NGO for the project and appealed for consideration to address issues of insecurity in their project.

Also, the Secretary to the Zamfara State Government, Malam Abubakar Nakwada, said the state was employing more viable measures in tackling insecurity.

He commended International Alert for the project, restating appeal for the Zamfara Government’s support to ensure its success for the betterment of the people and the state in general.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that stakeholders in the workshop cut across the Police, NSCDC, public and private sectors, Kaduna and Zamfara institutions. (NAN)