By SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri –
Community stakeholders from Maiduguri and Jere LGAs of Borno State have called for more advocacy and enlightenment activities by the government and it partners in tackling social vices in the state.
The stakeholders made the call on Thursday during a dialogue on social vices as an early warning sign and community level response mechanisms held at Women Development Center, Maiduguri.
They emphasized the urgent need to tackle the menace of hoodlums popularly known as ‘Malians’ terrorizing community members with threats and harassment.
They also urged community members to stop stigmatization of the repentant insurgents while calling for total forgiveness and acceptability of the returnees in the community for peace and progress to reign.
The stakeholders also called in government and their agencies to embrace all and sundry and cater for the welfare and sustainability through empowerment programmes for the returnees and community members
Most stakeholders said there has been improvement in the level of interaction and relationship between the community members and repentant insurgents as some of them even attend community meetings, wedding and naming ceremonies especially at night.
Exercise Director, Allamin Foundation for Peace and Development, Hajiya Hamsatu Allamin in her opening remark said as part of the reconciliation and peace building efforts, the foundation invited community’s stakeholders to deliberate freely on the major communal issues and problems which have been creating public disturbance.
She further said that the stakeholders were to discuss the issues and problems identified and their challenges as well as proffer meaningful suggestions and recommendations for a way forward in tackling these social vices identified in the various communities through the appropriate security, community, religious and other collaborative organizations.
The Project Facilitator and Monitoring & Evaluation Consultant, Dr. Lawan Balami, noted that the early morning warning is important in communities as it is an opportunity for the community members to be able to draw attention of security, community and religious as government stakeholders to community issues for quick action and intervention for the purpose of safety, peace and development.
He added that early morning warning and response system has four aspects such surveillance , reporting analysis and response which in the case of any outbreak or emergency, officials go round houses or camps to monitor and observe situations in communities for a specific period of time in order to ascertain the vulnerability or frequency of the outbreak or emergency.
Project Kanuri Interpreter, Comrade Zanna Shettima, also interpreted the explanations and presentations made by the Facilitator for the benefit of Kanuri listeners.
However, it was noted that all reporting situations in early morning warning require confidentiality or duty of secrecy as all intelligence is done in the overall interest including risk assessment to ascertain the level or gravity of the social vices and collaborative strategies and assessment with the relevant authorities to address the problem.
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