The Country Director, International Alert Nigeria, Paul Benshima Nyulaku has said one of the key take-aways from the 16 months “Access to Justice” Project implemented in the four local government areas in the North West was that, these local communities no longer beat the drum of war because they are now aware that they lose more when there is no peace and stability.
Nyulaku made this known at a Press Briefing in Abuja while sharing the impacts of this project which sought to Promote Stability, Access to Justice and Accountability Project in Northwest Nigeria as well as the Establishment of a Multi-Door Court House in Zamfara State, funded by UK Integrated Security.
in his words: “One key lesson is that communities do not want to be at war with each other any longer. Because when war happens, they suffer. When war happens, everybody loses. And so the support that we have provided to them demonstrates to us that people are actually eager to resolve their issues, and they are doing it in all the key communities in Kaduna and Zamfara state and doing it well.
“Therefore through this project we have developed a Community Justice and Stability model that both the government and organizations interested in peace building can learn from.
Benshima added that it is a participatory model where communities themselves highlighted their priorities, key terms of the project, and they set up conversations between communities and the state institutions for alignment.
On Inclusivity, he noted that all groups, including Women, Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) were involved in framing how the project was implemented.
Speaking about Integration of vulnerable groups such as Women and Children in the Northwest, he said they have largely implemented security and justice programs to make their contribution in reducing the scale of insecurity in the Northwest region.
“Those strategic dialogues brought together federal level institutions to be cited on what communities are saying would be an effective response to the issues that they are grappling with.
“When we talk about Alternative Dispute Resolution, it was a fundamental aspect of our work. Communities have been capacitated, and so they are able to resolve their issues among themselves, with externals and also with other communities.
“We need to sustain the efforts and ensure that they continue to carry on with all the knowledge that we have provided for them,” he said.
Also, the The Executive Director, Voluntary Aid Initiative (VAI) Zamfara, Musa Umar Aboki said through the project, they used local languauges to reach out to their community members.
“This project came at the right time because one of the root cause of it has to do with issues around access to justice and peace, stability, and honestly, with this project, the community members has been empowered in terms of identifying barriers to access to justice.
“Alot of community members has accepted to go by local justice system, and this has really provided us the opportunity to bring community members and head of security agencies together in order to identify issues around security priorities.
“This project has really supported other structures in the state to even establish a network that is known as Gender Based Violence (GBV) and other marginalized group network in Zamfara state.
“Through this project, we are able to reach out to community members to see the need to develop a community based initiative to reduce issues that are a harmful cultural practices,” he said.