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(L-R)
Mallam Y.Z. Ya’u, Dr Kole Shettima who chaired the occasion, Princess
Hamman-Obels, Prof Jibrin Ibrahim and Prof Nuhu Yaqub at the ceremony in Abuja
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Some Nigerian researchers
have called for more community participation if Boko Haram is to be defeated.
PREMIUM
TIMES report continues:
The
researchers stated this while presenting a book titled ‘Community Resilience to
Boko Haram Insurgency’ to the public on June 30.
The
book, authored by Princess Hamman-Obels, was targeted at placing insurgency
affected communities at the centre of interest. It was presented in Abuja by
Kole Shettima, Director, Africa Office, MacArthur Foundation.
The
lead research coordinator of the book, Jibrin Ibrahim, suggested key steps to
tackling the insurgency in Nigeria.
The
don, a civil society activist, said there was need to understand what has
sustained the Boko Haram insurgency and how local communities can play a role
in battling the insurgency.
“The
use of security agencies to quell the insurgency will be a very important step,
(but) is in itself not sufficient to solve it,” he said.
“This
is because at the end of the day what we know is that this insurgency emanated
from the community and it is the community that has both the responsibility but
also and above all the capacity to end it,” he added.
Mr.
Ibrahim also explained the reasons for the research that led to the book.
“I
think the first important issue that led us the carry out this research was the
seriousness of the insurgency itself,” he said. “We have not had such
devastation in Nigeria since the civil war of 1967-1970.
“Over
20,000 people have been killed, at the height of the insurgency, over three
million people have been displaced from their homes, their homes have been
destroyed, their means of livelihoods taken away from them,” he said.
The
researcher also highlighted some of the major findings of the research.
“The
Borno State 2010 education census revealed that only 23 per cent of children of
primary school age were going to primary school. This meant over 70 per cent of
the children of primary school age were not going to school and that was
already the lowest in the country.
“One
of the things that struck us at the beginning of the research process was to
try to understand the geography of what was going on. There was high level of
insurgency attacks in certain areas and in certain communities than in other
areas,” Mr. Ibrahim said.
The
professor added that the researchers also observed different levels of attacks
across the north-east and north-west states.
“We
were interested from a research point of view, trying to understand the
differential that explained why there were so much variation in what was going
on. We found for example that Jigawa State had very low level of insurgency
attacks while to its east in Yobe, there was high level and to its west in
Kano, there was relatively high level.
“So
why was it there were so little attacks in Jigawa and much more in the states
surrounding it; and we thought it was interesting to follow the lead to see
whether there was an objective to explain that differential”.
“The
narratives of the Boko Haram insurgency have really been about the insurgents
creating mayhem and the security forces, trying to contain that mayhem and in
the process creating some mayhem of their own. There have been very little
narratives about the people themselves. What is their narrative, how do they
understand what happened to them and what most importantly were they doing or
not doing in terms of the crisis they find themselves in?” Mr. Ibrahim said.
In
his remark, Y.Z. Ya’u, the Executive Director, Centre for Information
Technology and Development, CITAD, reiterated the relevance of the research to
contemporary Nigeria.
“As
illustrated, Nigeria is facing so many challenges: cattle rustling, community
clashes, and ethno-religious complains, and so on.
“So,
in general, the resilience of Nigerians as a community, is actually very weak
and therefore what can we do to enhance the resilience of Nigeria as a
community.
“But
of course, we know Nigeria is a collection of communities, so our focus is what
we can do to communities to enhance their own resilience,” Mr. Ya’u said.
Mr.
Ya’u said no single community in Nigeria has zero resilience and no single
community is excellently resilient.
He
said resilience can be dormant in communities that are weak or be highly
present in communities that are strong.
“The logic of our study was to study communities that are either strong in terms of resilience and those that are extremely weak,” he added.
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