…Trains Youths On Conflict Tracking
By Ndahi Marama, Maiduguri
Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, FCT-based Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, has partnered with Borno State chapters of the Jamatul Nasir Islam, NJI, and Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, and other stakeholders on the need to conduct free, peaceful and credible general elections in the state.
The organization has also trained 15 youths, selected from various civil society organizations, CSOs who would be engaged in conflict tracking, before, during and after the polls.
Briefing journalists at Barwee International Hotels in Maiduguri on Tuesday, the Executive Director CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Musa, sise that the importance of peace in the overall conduct of a free, fair, credible and participatory elections cannot be over-emphasized, hence, the need to engage all critical stakeholders to play a vital role to elect credible leaders that would provide dividends of democracy at all levels.
Represented by the Senior Program Officer of CISLAC, Mr. Solomon Adoga, Musa said that apart from the 15 youths trained on Conflict Tracking, additional ones would be engaged to cover all the 27 local government areas in the state.
He said, “It is the guarantee of peaceful conduct of elections that guarantee the participation of citizens, especially youths, women, the elderly and people living with disabilities.
“Moreso, in places where insecurity have prevailed, the need to guarantee citizens of a peaceful election becomes even more imperative.
“It is in line with this that we commended profoundly the various efforts championed by our partners, JNI, at the local government level that has brought about signing of the electoral peace accord in some local governments of the state.
“It is expected that Borno State would initiate the process which brings together the political gladiators and the political parties beyond the local government level commitments to agree to a pact which binds them to upholding the peaceful conduct of the election through-out the electioneering period.
“While it may seem that the elections are already by the corner, it is not too late a time to put this together, especially as lessons can be drawn from the various commitments in some of the local government areas.
“As has been noted at the national level, as well as in many states of the federation, peace accords have become very useful and critical tool to upholding peaceful conducts of election by stakeholders.
“The tendencies for political campaigns and other electioneering activities to stoke up violence are usually very high in democracies like ours. Drawing from these experiences, stakeholders have felt the need to organize and mobilize for peace agreements.
“For instance, in the run up to the 2015 general election, when the political climate was at a burning degree, the National Peace Accord stepped up to commit the presidential parties to peace agreements, with some of the provisions of the agreement being the commitment to prevail on their respective supporters to maintain peace in their activities.
“The aftermath of that election brought about one of the most historic democratic power transitions in Africa.
“Since then, the process has continued to be improved upon, with the political parties now brought into the frame, while states are also adopting same measure at that level.
“While we again, note that stakeholders in Borno have been working and have completed the process is some local government areas, we are by this brief requesting for a state-wide peace accord on the 2023 elections should be entered into in the state.
“We urge the state to emulate the National Peace Accord, as well as the various peace agreements as have been entered into by several states of the country.”
Also in his remarks, Borno NJI Program Manager, Ambassador Ibrahim Muhammad Sa’ad, said that his organization is committed to supporting CISLAC and all other election partners to ensure early response mechanism, analysis of news reports as they unfold during the 2023 general elections.
