Obviously, there is hardly any geographical zone across Nigeria that is not struggling with one type of violence or conflict ranging from Boko Haram insurgency, kidnapping, militancy, ethnic militias, farmers/herders clash , ritual killings to many other criminal activities capable of escalating to a bigger threat.
Amidst of the different conflicts which have been traced to every facet of the society, it has been observed that policy makers and decision-makers who should have acted promptly to prevent such conflicts from escalating have been found wanting as they show little or no commitment and resources towards adequate and timely response to Early Warning signals that would have guided against the total explosion of such conflicts at their formative stages.
This was the position of participants at the end of a one day media training on Early Warning Early Response (EWER) reporting organized by Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC) Transparency International in Nigeria (TI-Nigeria) with support from Open Society Foundation Africa (OSF-Africa) held at Amber Residence in Lagos at the weekend.
At the end of the one day training which was attended by over 30 journalists cut across prints and broadcasting media, it was agreed that among the factors contributing to the high rate of conflict and violence around the country include the poor remuneration of personnel across the security agencies and other responding agencies which subsequently militate against efforts at institutionalising efficient system and functional mechanism in response to early conflict signals.
The training which stressed the importance of early warning early response in nipping any sign of conflict in the bud, challenged the media as a major stakeholder in Early Warning and Early Response process, to see objective and conflict sensitive reporting as key to discouraging public tension and provocation, while unlocking the potential for peaceful co-existence and socio-political stability in Nigeria.
Speaking at the training organized for media practitioners by Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC) Transparency International in Nigeria (TI-Nigeria) with support from Open Society Foundation Africa (OSF-Africa), the executive director of CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani),acknowledged as essential role of the media as major stakeholders in conflict prevention, through conflict sensitive reporting.
He challenged the media on the need to do their reporting objectively in other not to escalate potential crisis.
According to the CISLAC Director:Information provided to the public must remain objective and devoid of sensations that are potential triggers to conflict or violence.
“As you are not unaware of, every part of Nigeria currently battles with evolving epidemy of multi-dimensional security threats. Lagos State in particular, is bedevilled with clashes between indigenes and non-indigenes on the basis of ethnic differences and more intense is this challenge giving the recently conducted general elections.This situation calls for more collaboration, communication, coordination and collective support for early warning, conflict prediction and early response mechanisms amongst communities and security operatives, which are central in conflict prevention.
“Howbeit, an EWER system with the buy-in of communities and security operatives but without the commitments of journalists to conflict sensitive reportage, cannot be as effective as it ought to be.
“This is because journalists are the mouthpiece of the civilian populace and where information provided for the public are conflict prone, regardless of how dedicated communities and security operatives are towards early warning and early response, the triggers will always be there to ignite conflict. It is on this backdrop that we acknowledge the essential role of the media as major stakeholders in conflict prevention, through conflict sensitive reporting.
“EWER systems are built to allow for trained community observers to carefully observe their environment and report indicators of conflict to community response networks who in turn are expected to apply professionalism in processing information provided and respond accordingly with an aim to de-escalate potential crises.
“We therefore call on the media to collaborate with CISLAC to improve protection of civilians in Lagos State and in Nigeria through objective and conflict sensitive reporting. We also call on the media to support the activities of EW Community Observers who have been trained to monitor,and report Early Warning (EW) threat signals under this project, to amplify these threats signals, to spur security operatives to respond speedily and with professionalism, as activities unfold in the state.
Lastly, we call on the media to own the EWER system by leveraging verifiable information and data that will be generated through Early Detection and to utilize same as caution signals, to prevent harm, loss of lives and properties and to de-escalate crises.”
