The Society for Peace Studies and Practice (SPSP), a group known for peace and conflict resolution, has suggested ways to resolve the country’s security challenges.
The Secretary-General of the group, Dr Adeola Adams, gave the suggestions in a virtual lecture delivered in Abuja on Monday.
The SPSP is an assembly of the country’s top certified academics, specialising in peace and security studies.
Adams said that the role of every stratum of the society was needed in solving Nigeria’s multifaceted problems.
He said if each constituency played its role accordingly, the country would be able to reverse the security situation.
The SPSP scribe noted that the government’s effort alone could not guarantee peace, adding that there was a need to bring all necessary stakeholders on board to resolve these challenges.
He added that this was paramount because of the emergence of powerful non state actors like the multinationals and others that help democratise the peace process.
Adams underscored the role of government in the realm of policymaking and implementation, official diplomacy, law making and enforcement in addressing security problems.
He said that other stakeholders should equally play critical roles in peace building to complement the political stratum.
“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 areas of intervention will help and sponsoring advocacy cum awareness programmes are also necessary.
“Interventions by businessmen and companies like the Dangote Group through job creation and creation of other economic opportunities can help reduce the country’s social friction,” he explained.
He, therefore, called for the facilitation of Citizen Diplomacy through individual efforts to peace building and the establishment of mediation centres across the country.
According to him, other critical areas that need to be contributed to the peace efforts are researches in peace studies.
He said the implementation of the outcome of research works would support the entrenchment of rule of law, human rights, the role of faith based diplomacy, funding and media.
The lecture was titled: Multi-Track Diplomacy: A System Approach to Peace in Nigeria.