The Nigerian Government and key stakeholders in the country’s peacebuilding sector have commenced work on a new National Peace Policy aimed at strengthening conflict prevention, institutional coordination and sustainable peace across the country.
The initiative was launched at a three-day technical workshop convened by the Office for Strategic Preparedness and Resilience (OSPRE) and the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), in collaboration with Triple Peace Africa.
The workshop, themed “Building an Inclusive National Infrastructure for Peace and Resilience”, brought together representatives of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, legislators, state peace commissions, subnational institutions, civil society organisations and peacebuilding practitioners from across the country.
Speaking at the event, the Director-General of OSPRE, Mr Chris Ngwodo, said the initiative was designed to co-create a policy framework that would align Nigeria’s contemporary peacebuilding efforts while incorporating developments that had emerged since the previous attempt to develop a National Peace Policy in 2012.
His counterpart at IPCR, Dr Joseph Ochogwu, described the proposed policy as the “normative and operational spine of Nigeria’s peacebuilding architecture”.
The Special Adviser to the President on Homeland Security, Major-General Adeyinka Famadewa (rtd), said the framework would establish a systematic approach to conflict prevention by bringing all relevant stakeholders into the process.
He said the policy would help move the country away from reacting to conflicts after they occur towards anticipating and preventing them.
The Chief Executive Officer of Triple Peace Africa, Dr Paul Nyulaku, described the emerging framework as a new-generation consensus among stakeholders on building sustainable peace in Nigeria.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Peacebuilding and Social Cohesion, Hon. Sadiq Abbas Tafida, pledged the commitment of the Green Chamber to supporting and adequately resourcing the implementation of the policy.
Participants agreed that Nigeria needed a genuinely whole-of-government and whole-of-society peace architecture capable of connecting Federal Government institutions with state and local governments, state peace commissions, civil society organisations and community-level actors.
They also called for an entirely new framework that reflects the realities, challenges and opportunities confronting the country.
The Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr Lanre Issa-Onilu, urged stakeholders to anchor the policy in Nigeria’s national values and ensure that it serves as an instrument for civic mobilisation and social cohesion.
Participating institutions signed a communiqué committing themselves to greater strategic collaboration, institutional coordination and alignment of peacebuilding activities.
The outcomes of the workshop are expected to inform further consultations across the federation as stakeholders work towards developing an inclusive National Peace Policy and strengthening Nigeria’s national infrastructure for peace and resilience.
