FG addressing root causes of violent extremism, says Counter-terrorism boss

By Sumaila Ogbaje

The National Coordinator, National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Maj.-Gen. Adamu Laka, has reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to counter-terrorism through policies and strategies.

Laka said this at a Validation Workshop on the Country’s Needs Assessment between the NCTC and Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said the policies are aimed at addressing root causes of violent extremism from bottom up.

He said the Country Needs Assessment was a continuation of the efforts of GCERF in funding Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) projects to build resilience against terrorism in a bid to ensure safer communities in Nigeria.

According to him, the meeting will be characterised by reviews of previous finding, assessment of on-going initiatives, potential future investment on PCVE and other relevant issues.

“In consonant, I also want to reiterate the FGN’s stance on counter-terrorism through policies and strategies aimed at addressing root causes from bottom up as prioritised in the Policy Framework and Nation Action Plans for PCVE.

“The enactment of the TPPA 2022, the signing of the handover protocol on the handling children associated with armed conflict in the country/ LCB region, the development of the Nigeria Call for Action, among others.

“In like manner, the FGN’s granted NCTC-ONSA the mandate to coordinate all Counter Terrorism and PCVE efforts in the country with the whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach.

“Unequivocally, this has been witnessed in Government sustained complementary support(s) to International and Domestic partners on PCVE and terrorism intervention/programmes to strengthen communities resilience and ensure a safer society,” he said.

Laka urged all stakeholders to bring their expertise to bear, enhance collaboration to further sharpen strategies and expand scope for more impactful PCVE efforts across the regions in Nigeria.

He also urged GCERF management to increase their funding for Nigeria considering the successes being recorded in the programmes implemented to ensure sustainability and ownership.

According to him, increased funding will solve the problem of terrorism because youths are vulnerable due to lack of employment and so on.

“So with increased funding, we will be able to engage the youths to prevent them from joining these terrorist groups or to engage in any violent acts,” he added

The Country Manager of GCERF, Mickael Amar, said the event was aimed to explain the main findings of the country needs assessment with a view to give them more insight on where to reposition their strategy for preventing violent extremism.

Amar said the organisation had since 2016 been supporting Nigeria and supporting local Civil Society Organisation (CSOs) to prevent violent extremism in the country.

According to him, it is time for them to have an extra look on what they can do better and what they should keep doing.

“This session today will help us to bring more evidence on where we should put our efforts and to get some alignment with what has been discussed during the past two days.

”This will also help to reinforce the prevention aspect of combating violent extremism.

“We will also draft a new strategy that will be followed by all stakeholders, including the authorities of Nigeria, to make sure that we all join hands together to combat violent extremism in the country,” he said. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)