Nigeria’s apex peace and conflict resolution group, the Society for Peace Studies and Practice (SPSP), has suggested ways out of the country’s security conundrum.
The SPSP is an assembly of the country’s top certified academics, specializing in peace and security studies.
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In its latest advisory delivered virtually via a lecture in Abuja, the group’s Secretary- General Dr. Adeola Adams clustered the role of every stratum of the society, saying if each constituency plays its role accordingly Nigeria will be able to reverse the security imbroglio.
The lecture titled: Multi-Track Diplomacy: A System Approach to Peace in Nigeria, said critical stakeholders in the country must engage in an interconnected activities.
The SPSP scribe said even though government is at the top of the System Approach, it is now palpably apparent that government alone could not alone guarantee peace in the country.
He said even though the function of state actors is central, state hegemony in conflict management is however on the hedge given the emergence of powerful none state actors like the multinationals and others that help democratize peace process.
While highlighting the role of government in the realm of policymaking and implementation, official diplomacy, law making and enforcement, the academic said other stakeholders should equally play critical roles in peace building to complement the political stratum.
Dr Adams said the role of Non-governmental professionals like: Local or International NGOs, professional bodies like SPSP, NBA, NLC, providing relief materials to victims of conflict, expertise on specific area of intervention and sponsoring advocacy cum awareness programmes.
He said the interventions by businessmen and companies like the Dangote Group through job creation and through the creation of other economic opportunities can help reduce the country’s social friction, saying an idle mind is a devil’s workshop.
The scholar therefore called for the facilitation of Citizen Diplomacy through individual efforts to peace building and through the establishment of mediation centres across the country.
Other critical areas that should contribute to the peace efforts, according to him, are: the need to up research in peace studies and implement the outcome, as well as supporting the entrenchment of rule of law, human rights, the role of faith based diplomacy, funding and media.
