By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
Following the need to carry everybody along in conflict resolution in contemporary society, a non profit making organization under the auspices of Early Warning, Early Response, (EWER) has called on women to actively participate in peace building processes in their respective communities.
The Executive Director, CLEEN Foundation, Mr. Gad Peter who made the call during a peace building workshop on Friday November 18 in Kaduna, held for women in Kaduna, said sustainable peace is a collective effort.
Gad who lamented that women have decided to take back seat in issues that bother the society, said they must be allowed to take their place in governance, make themselves available as critical stakeholders and agents of peace in their respective localities, noting that any society that ignores its women is doomed.
He said, “In most communities in Nigeria, women are not considered as key stakeholders when it comes to conversation about peace and security. We think that is very wrong because they suffer conflict and violence as much as men and so there is need for them to be part of the process.
“So what we are doing this morning is to enhance their capacity to be able to advocate as peace agents and to advocate and push for more involvement of women in peace building processes that will help overcome contemporary challenges.
“Nigeria as a whole especially Northern Nigeria has gone through several conflicts and a number of communities are yet to recover from such incidents that had taken place in their community.
“In Kaduna in particular, we have had quite a number of conflicts, ranging from Kasuwa-nama, Adara community and a number of other communities that have gone through these challenges. So what we are doing this morning is to train women to understand conflict analysis to understand the triggers of conflict, to understand what it takes to build peace and to make them see themselves as integral part of their community as stakeholders that needs to work towards the search and lasting peace in their community.” He said.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after the event, the primary officer, CLEEN Foundation, Mbaegbu Ebere disclosed that the project is in line with the United Nations Security Council Resolution Acts, 1,3,5,2 that says for peace and security to thrive in the society, women must be involved.
Ebere said, “the project is actually aimed at bringing women together to increase their knowledge on conflict analysis and peace building. It’s in line with the UN security council resolution 1,3,5,2 that says for peace and security to be sustainable, women has to be actively involved in all the processes of peace building and conflict and resolution.
“So that’s why we brought Women together today to discuss about the conflict that is going on in our respective society and see how they can contribute in solving those conflicts.
“There is need to see themselves as passive agents to peace and security because we discovered they took the back seat and leave that responsibility for the male folks to handle but a training like this will increase their Knowledge that women has a role to play because they are mostly the victims of violent attack in their community. That’s why we are here to let them know that they are important in their community to help solve the violent attacks in their Society .
In his assessment, he stressed that a lot of the women are knowledgeable in conflict related issues. But there is need to let them know that they can help prevent it and can become more involved in the process of lasting peace and in the development of their community.
