The Nation Newspaper

Tag: extremism

  • ‘How to curb violent extremism in Nigeria’

    ‘How to curb violent extremism in Nigeria’

    Nigeria and countries in the Sahel must urgently adopt a collective, inclusive, and development-driven response to violent extremism, stakeholders at the National Summit on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) stressed yesterday.

    The summit, convened by the PCVE Knowledge, Innovation and Resource Hub (KIRH) in partnership with the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), brought together government, civil society, academia, security agencies, traditional leaders, women, and youth groups.

    Speakers at the event warned that violent extremism was no longer confined to specific states or regions but has become a pan-Nigeria threat with cross-border implications.

    They noted that extremist groups operate fluidly across territories, exploiting weak governance structures, porous borders, digital technology, and illicit economies such as arms, drugs, and extractive activities.

    Highlighting the drivers of extremism, the summit identified extreme poverty, unemployment, lack of access to services, unresolved grievances, and weakened community institutions as major push factors.

    It also flagged ostentatious inequality, injustice, rights abuses, and impunity as triggers that fuel radicalisation and recruitment by extremist groups.

    In his keynote address, Coordinator, National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Maj.-Gen. AG Laka noted that extremist groups were using digital platforms for recruitment, propaganda, and radicalisation, which has further removed geographical limits to extremist influence.

    Laka, who was represented by Commodore Ahmed Abubakar Madawaki, said the NCTC has adopted a balanced strategy that integrates operational responses with prevention, resilience-building, and respect for the rule of law.

    “At the core of this is the revised Policy Framework and National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PF-NAP), which emphasizes prevention, community engagement, and integration into national and subnational development planning,” he said.

    Laka noted the challenges, such as institutional fragmentation, inadequate subnational budgets, the complexity of reintegration, and socioeconomic drivers like unemployment and exclusion that fuel vulnerability.

    He urged stakeholders to operationalize the validated PF-NAP within six months and domesticate it at state and local levels, adding that they should expand the work of the Knowledge Hub, invest in livelihoods and reintegration programmes, and commit to whole-of-society responses so that prevention of the menace becomes sustainable and community-led.

    Chair, National Steering Committee, PAVE Network, Jaye Gaskia, in his opening remarks, stressed that military operations alone cannot address the menace, given the mobile and adaptive nature of violent extremist groups.

    He advocated a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach that combines security measures with governance reforms, social justice, youth empowerment, and economic opportunities.

    According to him, there was a need for urgent reforms in the Almajiri education system, stronger local government autonomy, and community-led peacebuilding initiatives to build resilience.

    He also noted the need for strengthened grievance resolution mechanisms to promote reconciliation and to enhance the participation of women and youth in decision-making.

    Delivering a goodwill message, the Director General, Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), Dr. Joseph Ochogwu, described the summit as a timely platform to address emerging security threats in Nigeria and the Sahel.

    Ochogwu stressed the need for vigilance, innovation, and collaboration in responding to these challenges.

    He reaffirmed the IPCR’s commitment to promoting dialogue, building resilience, and supporting evidence-based strategies for sustainable peace.

    The DG commended the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) through the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), as well as the Partnership Against Violent Extremism (PAVE) Network, PCVE Knowledge, Innovation and Resource Hub (KIRH), Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), and ActionAid for advancing inclusive and locally grounded approaches to countering extremism.

    He urged participants to use the summit to strengthen partnerships, amplify community voices, and reaffirm their collective resolve to build a Nigeria and Sahel where peace becomes the norm.

  • Nigeria committed to leading role against extremism, says Buhari

    Nigeria committed to leading role against extremism, says Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari has reiterated Nigeria’s commitment to playing a leading role in bringing together countries of the West African sub-region in a collective security arrangement against extremism.

    Speaking in Jordan at a security meeting hosted by King Abdullah II, Buhari said with what Nigeria had gone through, it was ready to share the experiences with a view to fashioning out comprehensive action plans in tackling the scourge of violent extremism in the region.

    Calling for a stronger and well-coordinated collaboration, the President said the joint regional collaboration under the auspices of the Multinational Joint Task Force, combined with the efforts of the Nigerian Armed Forces, had gone a long way to decimate the activities of extremists in the West African region.

    The President, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, lamented that insurgents were able to attract members in their fold because of the insidious preaching of extremist clerics and called for an action plan to halt the trend.

    He urged leaders, especially from the Muslim world to speak up against the hateful violence committed by deranged people in the name of Islam.

    Buhari said: “All nations, irrespective of religion should partner effectively in implementing national, regional and global action plans to counter violent extremism.”

    At the end of the meeting, participants resolved to come up with concrete action plans that would change the narrative of violent extremism in the West African sub-region at a follow-up meeting to be hosted by Nigeria.

  • Ending extremism tops talks in Lagos

    Ending extremism tops talks in Lagos

    Community and religious leaders, as well as scholars met in Lagos penultimate week to chart paths to countering violent extremism in the Northeast and the Niger Delta.

    The interaction facilitated by UFUK Dialogue, an international non-governmental organisation, also focused on how to end youth restiveness and unemployment.

    Local and international scholars presented papers during the conference whose theme was “Countering Extremism through Peace, Education and Love.”

    Representative of UFUK Dialogue in Lagos, Mehmet Ozleyen, said religious leaders must preach love and peace to their followers and others.

    He said: “The individual who is conscious of divine creation is first of all a hero of affection.

    “Such a person is deeply concerned about every existence; embraces everybody and everything compassionately.

    “With love, he or she sees the existence of other religious beliefs and philosophical views as a reality and constantly seeks ways of living together peacefully with other people with the idea of accepting others in their own place and respecting everybody.”

  • ‘Training youths to fight extremism’

    MicroDevelopment Consulting Limited (MDCL) has embarked on a campaign to train stakeholders to contain violent extremism in the North.

    The stakeholders, comprising youths from communities in Borno, Yobe, Kano, Kaduna and Plateau states, are to undertake the Positive Voices Campaign Project (PVCP).

    Chief Executive Officer of  MDCL Furera Jumara said the PVCP would train individuals to serve as role models and mentors to youths through Community Engagement Initiatives (CEI’s).

    She noted that there has been an increase in bigotry, intolerance and violent activities among youths because there are hardly people to act as a positive influence.

    Jumara spoke in Abuja at the launch of the PVCP’s Community Engagement Initiative (CEI).

    Her words: “Today is the launch of the positive voice campaign project, CEI. The project is managed by MicroDevelopment Consulting Limited, funded by NSRP (Nigerian Stability and Reconciliation Programme), which is a DIFID (Department for International Development) programme.

    “Over the years, there has been a noticeable increase in bigotry, intolerance and violent activities among youths. We believe one contributing factor is the lack of positive influences and role models for youths.

    “The PVCP is therefore influenced by the counter-terrorism programme of the Office of the National Security Advisor and is funded by British Council’s NSRP. It is about increasing the resilience of youths to negative influences through the identification and training of individuals from selected states across the country’’.

    “These individuals would serve as role models and mentors to youths in their communities through Community Engagement Initiatives that they would embark upon. The project intends to continuously send out positive narratives that promotes tolerance, national identity and civic nationalism through these individuals as well as, we hope that it shows the youth that they can achieve a lot without violence.

    “The programme is training groups of youths across five states, we send them out to develop mini projects that they can do for their communities that will embed positive messages in terms of tolerance, peace and issues of countering violent extremism, we call them positive voices basically they are role models.

    “After awhile, these pilot scheme that we start with five states is going to be rolled across Nigeria after eighteen months.”

    Programme Manager NSRP, Dr Ukoha Ukiwu added, “The selection procedure was very rigorous, many of them where selected through nomination and recommendation from their communities, they are already persons known in their communities and influential, they are not being taken from outside and imposed on the communities. They have been equipped with engagement strategies that will be able to communicate the objectives of their projects. We believe that the different initiatives that each of them will be carrying out are things that their communities will find interesting and useful, we hope that if it is successful, we will be able to publish the results and encourage other actors both within and outside Nigeria to see this as a model to adopt in terms of peace building.”

     

     

  • UFUK Dialogue seeks end to violent extremism in Nigeria

    UFUK Dialogue, an Abuja-based non-governmental organisation has called for an end to violent extremism in Nigeria through love and tolerance.

    This is a major resolution of an international conference on Love and Tolerance organised by UFUK Dialogue in collaboration with the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution in Abuja.

    Major speakers at the conference include Cardinal John Onaiyekan, the Archbishop of Abuja, and Dr Rachel Rudolph, an international expert on religious extremism.

    Minster of Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalung, who was a panellist, said: “Boko Haram insurgents took advantage of our impatience and intolerance to cause havoc. The Qu’ran does not encourage killing and likewise the Bible.”

    Prof. Oshita Oshita, director general of the IPCR said: “The event was aimed at highlighting love and tolerance as veritable tools towards countering violent extremism in the society.

    “We cannot ignore the role of tolerance and love in every functional society. And it must be stated emphatically that what Nigeria needs at this point in time is love and tolerance” he stated, adding:  ”with love in our hearts, we would be able to tolerate one another, including our religious affiliation and cultural inclination”

    Cardinal Onaiyekan commended UFUK Dialogue for its insight, saying: “UFUK Dialogue must be commended for this wonderful initiative. This is very timely especially in this period of our existence”

    On the objective of the conference, director of UFUK Dialogue, Mr. Kamil Kemanci, said: “The conference is aimed at ensuring that love and tolerance continues to dominate our actions, inactions and relationships in the quest to build a better society for all”.

    The technical session was chaired by Mrs Sardutu Shehu Mardi, of the Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA).

    Ufuk Dialogue was founded in 2011 with the mission to foster inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue, stimulate thinking and exchange of opinions on supporting and fostering democracy and peace all over the world and to provide a common platform for education and information exchange.

  • U.S.: Nigerians frustrated by corruption, extremism

    U.S.: Nigerians frustrated by corruption, extremism

    NIgerians are frustrated by corruption and extremism, the United States (U.S.) said yesterday.

    U.S. Special Representative for Religion and Global Affairs Shaun Casey spoke with reporters at the U.S. Consulate in Lagos.

    He spoke about an initiative at the instance of the Secretary of State John Kerry to train staff of the U.S. Mission across the world on building relationship with global religious organisations and leaders.

    Casey said the U.S. government would create inter-religious conversations where different religious denominations and groups could collaborate to fight corruption and social injustice.

    He said: “Given its diversity, we want Nigeria to become a just society. We sense real frustration with the level of corruption in the country. From the people in the streets and senior religious leaders, there is deep dissatisfaction about corruption and extremism. That is what we want to work with. When you observe unity among diverse religious groups that are saying, ‘we want to repel extremism’, this is where my office wants to work.”

    The envoy said the initiative included helping Kerry to build capacity within the State Department on how to engage religious actors and assess dynamics of religions, and to establish a point of contact with external religious groups and non-governmental organisations working for social justice.

    Casey said Nigeria held a strategic position in global religious ranking, noting that the aim of the initiative was to reform local groups with extremist tendencies, engage religious leaders in tackling corruption and promoting peace.

    He said: “We believe, using the context of conflict resolution, religious leaders and communities can be a source of peace and reconciliation. Corruption is another area we believe religious communities can come with a unique voice to hold private individual and government officials accountable by calling for transparency and ethical behaviour. It is our belief that we can deal with corruption by going through religious groups as a source of inter-partnership.”

    He added that the initiative would enable the U.S. government seek partnership with international interest organisations and global faith groups in promoting the understanding of policy implications at the recent climate change meeting in Paris, France.

    Casey said the aim was to engage people in rural communities on mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

     

  • Youth urged to shun radicalism, extremism

    Youth have been advised to shun all forms of radicalism and extreme views that are capable of truncating the future togetherness of our country.

    This was the focus of the just concluded three day workshop organized for young leaders by the African Centre for Peace and Security Training (ACPST) of Institute of Security Studies at Westtown Hotel, Lagos.

    The programme tagged Youth Radicalism, Extremism and Human Security brought together over 100 youths from civil society groups, faith based organization, media, community outreaches.

    Speaking at the event, the Regional Representative and Special Advisor of Institute of Security Studies, Amb, Olusegun Akinsanya said that youth are driver for change and can bring about positive change and development in African if their talents and views are channelled positively.

    He said that the change in the value system across the world is increasingly affecting our youth as they are engaging in awful behaviour in their quest for better governance which must be addressed for unity and progress across Africa.

    He noted that young people are blessed with creative skills that could help them express their mind in the development of peace, so its time to ask ourselves what are we doing with this God-given talent for peace and prosperity?

    “Youth have the ability to prevent and manage conflict, and are also able to participate in post-conflict reconstruction and help propagate the message of peace through the art, and other community outreach programmes”.

    The Ambassador gave us example of a word called Kalashnikov that came from a Russian professor and explained how an artist in the Gambia used the word in his music to effect positive change.

    He further encouraged the participants to take advantage of this course, experience and network and take it back home as there cannot be love or happiness without peace.

    Earlier in his words, the Regional Coordinator of the The African Centre for Peace and Security Training (ACPST) of ISS, Prof Ademola Abba said that the workshop was to enhance the ability of young leaders to make and implement policies that will improve human security in Africa primarily through short courses and workshops.

  • Address religious extremism, urges Mark

    Nigeria yesterday demanded immediate and sustained global action against religious extremism in some parts of the world.

    Senate President David Mark made the demand at the 127th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Quebec, Canada.

    Mark said steps should be taken to address the crippling effects of ethnicity.

    The Senate President said tackling religious extremism and ethnicity would help to reduce divisive tendencies in some parts of the world.

    He reiterated that “though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we want.”

    He restated that more than ever before humanity has come to understand that despite language, ethnic, cultural, race, religious, gender as well as political inclination and economic diversities, it is in brotherhood that progress could be achieved in the world.

    Mankind, he said, has also come to appreciate the more that no community, whether local or international, is an island to itself.

    The Nigerian High Commissioner, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, said the crippling insecurity in the country can be resolved.

    Maduekwe noted that with a vibrant parliament, option for peaceful resolution of the country’s challenges remains bright and potent.

    He said the Nigerian National Assembly is the most robust, the most visible and the most structured indication that democracy is not only surviving in country but will also transform the nation.