Stakeholders’ Engagements Key to Addressing Insecurity, Says IPCROnuminya Innocent in Sokoto
The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) has said that it is engaging stakeholders regularly to discuss the causes and nature of conflicts towards peace-building key to addressing insecurity.
The Director General, IPCR, Dr. Joseph Ochogwu, stated this in Sokoto while briefing journalists at NUJ, Press Centre.
He noted that they were in Sokoto to interact with stakeholders in peace building stressing that contributions of every stakeholder is important in achieving lasting peace.
Ochogwu further explained that the round table discussion was geared towards addressing prevailing conflict trends and dynamics in Nigeria as part of the processes of updating the strategic conflict assessment .
“When such conversations are held with various stakeholders, we can have wide-ranging insightful analyses and robust suggestions into the challenges of insecurity in the country,” he said.
Ochogwu said that IPCR was saddled with the responsibility of investigating the causes and dynamics of conflict in Nigeria and indeed Africa, and making evidence-informed recommendations to the decision makers.
Such responsibility, he sa
id, necessitated IPCR to often engage scholars, practitioners, security and civil society personnel, that would address the nation’s security challenges
He further said that the Institute had been working with stakeholders from within and outside the country to achieve the mandate of bringing peace to the country.
He said such stakeholders included state and non-state actors, agencies from foreign countries, security agencies, civil society organisations, the academia, among others,
The IPCR boss maintained that the doctrinal policies of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu is yielding fruits, saying some of the deliberate policies of the administration are bringing succour to the citizenry.
“When people are comfortable, they hardly take to violence, and this is what Mr. President is trying to do,” he stated.
On herders, farmers clashes, he explained that there is a need to sit and holistically address the issue saying criminals have taken advantage of the matter.
“You know when there misunderstanding between farmers and herders, may be the case of trespass,both resort to amicable settlement using traditional rulers in the area he added
“Let me also suffer during conflicts, because criminals take advantage of rustling their animals.”
He disclosed that traditional rulers should be given a mandate to settle conflicts in their domain to avoid the conflict degenerating into bigger one.
