Sunday Ehigiator
The Center for Democracy and Development (CDD), has unveiled series of peace-building fact-finding mission and sensitisation programs, aimed at addressing challenges of insecurity in Nigeria.
The Director of the organisation, Idayat Hassan, in a statement made available to THISDAY, said the intention of the project was to reinforce government’s ongoing efforts, by providing non-military alternative to resolving insecurity
She said the project would provide knowledge-based solutions, facts, sentiments, biases, historical grudges, and narrative of withheld justices, from field work, after its completion.
According to her, “CDD would be working with the federal and state agencies, the media, community leaders, victims of attacks, and aggrieved non-state groups, who are willing to embrace peace, in order to gain insights into how to remedy the widespread insecurity.
“Through close engagement with the media, the project will also seek to replace bias-fueled stories, stereotypical and tilted narratives, and ethnic labeling for empirical-based, objective, and solution-driven reporting.”
The organisation also revealed that it would be holding high-level capacity development training for journalists, which would place emphasis on the need to understand the context and historical dimensions to each of the crises, the trigger factors, and how to reach amicable solutions.
“The previous work we have done has sought to help correct basic misunderstanding of the identities of Nigerians.”
According to Hassan, “most Nigerians, especially people from the South, barely understand the distinction between a Hausa man, a Kanuri man, and or a Fulani man.
“They always, ignorantly, assume all of them as one and the same. Ditto with people from the North, who have also exhibited the inability to differentiate between a Yoruba man from Oyo, Ogun, Osun, and or Ekiti states. Such basic ignorance has continued to fuel the crisis,” she added.
Also speaking, Director of Research, CDD, Dr. Sa’eed Husaini, said knowledge obtained from the latest research works underwent by the organisation, would be put to good use in helping the country to define a non-violent path to restoring peaceful coexistence across the country.
