₦airaland Forum

Measuring Peace in Nigeria
By Abdulrazaq O Hamat

An increasing amount of attention to peace indexes has provided insights into the levels of peace and conflict around the world. The indicators used in Vision of Humanity’s renowned Global Peace Index (GPI) report have now been adopted in a Nigeria Peace Index, created by the Foundation for Peace Professionals (FFP), with slight adjustments made to suit local use. This is a useful tool for peace builders in Nigeria, especially for authorities in search appropriate policy direction for peace building.

Measuring peace at the national level allows a country to assess the social, political and economic factors that create peace. More importantly, the NPI will allow peace builders in Nigeria to change the narrative, by concentrating the advocacy on foundational indices of peace, not on crisis or conflict management. This is important because, by focusing the discussion on fundamental indices of peace, we are channeling efforts towards advocating for improvement in those factors that make the society empowered and less prone to conflict and insecurity.

To design the Nigeria Peace Index (NPI), five (5) broad indicators were adopted namely; crime rate, level of human rights abuse, level of poverty, level of education, and rate of incarceration. Under these five broad categories, there are sub-indicators, which include rates of communal clashes, kidnapping, extra-judicial killings, unlawful arrest and detention, armed robbery and many others. Foundation for Peace Professionals (FPP), the developer of the index collected data from across the 36 states of the federation between 2010 and 2016 to produce it.

It is important to note that, a perception of peace is not the same as presence of peace. Perceptions can be shaped by external factors, such as media reports and the more coverage of negative stories a state receives, the greater the perception of lack of peace and vice versa.

Additionally, it is on the basis of news coverage that newspapers give opinions on their op-ed pages. Talk shows on televisions turned the sharing of opinions into a national pastime. Editors and talk show hosts strive to give us a range of opinions that stretch from one end of the spectrum to another. At another level, people are enlisted to share their thoughts and feelings publicly on any number of social, moral, and political matters and as a result, some people spend valuable time sharing only feelings, sentiments or uninformed opinions.

However, that is not the case with the NPI, which was designed based on facts and verifiable data. It is not about opinion or perception of peace. It is primarily focused on rating the peacefulness of states based on foundational indices of peace, which are verifiable and not tied to any singular event. We all need to agree that such a fact-based index need to be given more attention to improve the general state of peacefulness in the long-run.

More importantly because, the NPI will help leaders at various arms of government come to term with fundamental issues needing proper attention to guarantee long term peace, we must encourage them to not only take a look at the index, but to also support its continuous production on annual basis.

Finally, let me ask an important question we can all ponder about: How can media contribute to peace building and prevent conflict in Nigeria? It is by giving voices to those who are advocating tolerance, peace building and understanding and promoting such other efforts geared towards strengthening the foundational indices of peace. Nigeria Peace Index (NPI) is one of such effort, and we all need to embrace it.

Hamzat is a Human Rights Ambassador and Executive Director of Foundation for Peace Professionals. He can be reached at discus4now@gmail.com

https://forpeacepro.com/2018/09/06/measuring-peace-in-nigeria/

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[quote author=overcomer90 post=71530652][/quote]It is well

Hum

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How to fix Nigeria in 72 hours
By Abdulrazaq O Hamzat

Nigeria is one of the greatest countries in the world, whose greatness is being held back by numerous self inflicted vices.

While the country is blessed abundantly in all fronts, its greatest undoing is the lack of visionary leadership, which some analysts have described as Nigeria’s natural disaster.

Successive governments in Nigeria have blamed the complexity of the country for their failure in office and some even argued that Nigeria is a difficult country to govern.

However, this piece is not to debate whether or not, Nigeria is a difficult country to govern since every country has their own peculiar difficulties, the focus is to proffer workable solutions that if implemented can set the nation on the path of progress.

To my understanding, any visionary leadership can fix Nigeria in just 72 hours and position the country for greatness.

By fixing Nigeria, I do not mean a sudden transformation from third world to first world.

What I mean is simply to create a structure for progress by building and empowering all citizens to directly or indirectly be part of the nation building process and putting the right people in the right place, to drive the right policies with the required vigor at the right time and create an institutional culture that cannot be reversed.

Without boring you with so much intellectual analysis and academic jargons, let us go straight to the issues that matter and how to fix Nigeria within 72hours.

We must recognize that people, whose tribal and family members were cruelly murdered in the first coup, counter coup, pogrom and civil war are still hurting.

They are all front line victims still hurting from the pains of the past.

Nigeria as a country should offer specific apology and relief to these set of victims and a national apology to all Nigerians, who may have been directly or indirectly affected by these unfortunate incidents.

This singular action will begin the process of leading Nigeria to civil peace.

This action is very important because, it is the first primary duty of Nigeria as a country to protect every citizen from harm, even against themselves and the country failed in that regard.

Nigeria’s greatest challenge is the disconnection between the people and its government.

The people lack outright understanding that they own the government and could dictate what must be done.
This disconnection has made them lack patriotism in the sense that, they do not take ownership of government resources, assets, policies and vision.

Prioritize public information, re-orientation and sensitization through constant engagement for educational purpose on key citizenship concept.

The leader must educate the people to be able to socially mobilize them for joint policy implementation and to instil mass patriotism.

Economic marginalization, extra judicial killings, security high handedness and lack of access to justice had given birth to regional and community terror gangs such as militants, insurgents etc.

Offer sincere apology to all victims and their community.

Offer sincere amnesty to all combatants and demonstrate willingness for true national healing by having open and sincere dialogue about the cause of the problem and give room for joint problem solving.
De-militarize, De-mobilize and reintegrate.

The court is not a place for dispute resolution; it is a place for judgement pronouncement.

And in most cases, judgement is only pronounced in favour of the most intelligent speaker, but only the rich can hire the best speakers.

In addition to this, the slow justice system is a major problem, apart from the excessive concentration on technicalities, thereby loosing the essence of the justice system.

The worst alternative dispute resolution is still a little better than the best court judgement because, ADR does not only resolve the dispute, it unites the conflicting parties.

Center for alternative dispute resolution should therefore be given greater priority in our quest for peace.

ADR centers should be established across all local government areas of Nigeria and empowered with adequate resources to function properly.

The court should be encouraged mostly to handle criminal matters, while ADR centers handle civil matters.

Religion/ethnic sentiment is the order in Nigeria rather than the exception.

This vice drives our politics, policies and conduct in every sphere of life.

Hardly can any policy be discussed without an element of ethnic and religious sentiment.

From Central Bank money printing, recruitment into civil service, security engagement and activities, foreign mission and even achievement of Nigerians in diaspora are all subjected to ethnic/religious interpretation.

If we don’t want the populace to continue to draw wrong ethnic/religion interpretation from our everyday issue, we must give them something else to draw interpretation from by shaping their sentiments with more free thoughts that disrupt their preconceived thoughts.

As we all know, sentiment is part of life and a visionary leadership will understand how to exploit the ethnic and religious sentiment of all sections of its citizens for positive advancement of their interest.

Hamzat is a human right ambassador and Executive Director of Foundation for Peace Professionals.
He can be reached at discus4now@gmail.com

https://www.blueprint.ng/how-to-fix-nigeria-in-72-hours/

ANN structure is now in place across the federation. All the party need now is the support of good people like you.

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yeyerolling:
who is Hashim another joker

The one that will banish poverty in Nigeria.

It's not about illiteracy.

It's the state of the mind. When people shut their to learning, understanding will not set in.

koolbe:
Moles planted by PDP to destabilise ANN

Oga, please go and have a brain reset.

ANN cannot be destabilized. Olawepo Hashim is the man.

When they say our youth are lazy, people like you often make it seems to be true.

Do you want to claim to be ignorant that you don't know Olawepo Hashim's company is currently generating about 500 megawatts of electricity for Nigeria without any government Kobo?

The least you can do is to first educate yourself about people before opening your mouth to talk trash.

If an independent company is generating that huge electricity without any Kobo from government, that's to tell you what such person is capable of doing.

yeyerolling:
no politician is bothered by fela. Cant win a landlord association contest

Those guys mentioning the name of Fela in a serious discussion are jokers.

We are talking about a serious minded person like Hashim, they are mentioning boys scout

nex:
Possible, but that would take at least a decade of very extreme hard work and diligence. Does he plan to become a president for life?

You are very correct. Hashim himself made it clear in the speech that to get to $4TrillionEconomy, the plan they set in place is for 10years.

Listen to the speech again.

This is a serious minded person committed to getting this country out of poverty.

We must therefore ask the right questions

henchamb:
This guy might snatch ANN ticket from Fela Durutoye.
Fela's goodwill began to decline after the onslaught by Moghalu for PACT

Please, don't compare Hashim to Fela. They are far apart. Fela is not known in ANN. Even me here, if I am contesting for the ticket against Fela, I will dust him very easily.

Hashim is a serious minded person who is not only interested in leading this country to great promise, but also understands the required work needed to be done and his doing it.

Fela is just a noise maker on media without any grassroots work, Hashim on the other hand is everywhere at the grassroots.

This has nothing to do with pact, Fela has never been a serious aspirant.

Enter any ANN office in your state, ask about ANN Presidential ticket and see if anyone knows Fela. Nobody.

Hashim is the only aspirant here

KosyJerry:
Empty promises everywhere cus of power... Curses laid on your family cus of lies. I pity your generations

Oga, your brain is still in the box. Instead of cursing people who wants to free you from the box, pray for them. If not, your curse will be on your generation

OYAY:
The guy said over ten years;ok maybe if all hands is on deck and the musketeers in corridor of power is demystify and he successfully concentrate on governance without politicking but will that be possible in this our clime? Ponder on that

You really listened with rapt attention. Most people don't listen, they just make comment out of ignorance.

No typical politician will tell the truth like Hashim is doing. He made it very clear that the national economic development programme they have will get us to a $4TrillionEconomy in 10 years. That's not what a typical politician will do.

A global business man like Hashim cannot be saying what he can't do.

We should probe the claims by asking the right questions.

We can't afford to remain a 3rd world country, we must embrace practical people like Hashim who are ready to get this country out of poverty

WinningSun:
we have the financial structure. but the economic blueprint and the mentality is not there.

Hashim has made it clear that they have the economic blueprint titled national economic development programme (nedp). Don't forget, he made it clear in the speech that to get to that $4trillion economy, it will take us 10 years.

No exaggeration to seek votes. He told it exactly how it is based on their plan. We should interrogate them more on the plan rather than jump into ignorant conclusion.

ozo13:
ur words have summarized our politician attitudes. They always say what they know is impossible at least in this our generation

I think you are not being fair to yourself. You are talking about a man who is currently producing about 12% of Nigeria's electricity without any Kobo from government.

A global business man with investment in telecoms, oil and gas and energy in at least 7 countries.

This is someone who knows how to get things done.

jesmond3945:
You can see that this man is very delusional. I would have accepted this if it was coming from Dangote.

Mr man, someone with 27 years business and political experience,with investment in 7 countries of the world in energy, oil and gas and telecoms is offering us a way out of poverty and you have the audacity to describe him as delusional?

I mean someone who is already generating about 12% of the current electricity we use in Nigeria without a Kobo from government.

I think you are the delusional one. You are even comparing this young man with Dangote that is milking you through government patronage.

Livefreeordieha:
why wait?? Are u a Nigerian at all?? Because i think u shud first ask what happened to all the suggestions of our technocrats to diz govt and previous..Don't forget the 2014 confab..Be realistic please i beg u...Educate ursef further about diz politricks..So u don't spill disgrace on ur intelligence.

You are very correct. Some of the comments read like those coming from people without basic understanding of the Nigerian situation. As if some of them just fall down from heaven.

SheIsElle:
And how does he plan to achieve that? By increasing our taxes? Sounds like the promise of a drowning man.

The least you can do is to listen carefully to the speech so that you can make an informed contribution to the discuss or ask important question.

He made it very clear that the ANN now has an economic blue print titled national economic development programme (nedp), which will move Nigeria's economy from what it is today, to a $4TrillionEconomy in 10 years.

Remember, this is a global business man with investment in telecoms, oil and gas and energy in at least, 7 different countries.

This is not a typical politician without any understanding of modern economy and governance.

So, ask genuine question,You have to listen sincerely rather than with preconceived notions.

vision2050:
APC worst, this is the evidence.

True. So discard both APC and PDP. That's the only sensible thing to do.

Fortunately for us, ANN has provided a better alternative. We now have a choice

ANN Presidential Aspirant, Olawepo Hashim will deliver $4trillion economy for Nigeria

Global Business Mogul and frontline presidential aspirant under the platform of Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Mr Olawepo Hashim has outlined his plan to create a $4trillion economy for Nigeria.

According to him, for Nigeria to get out of poverty, we need a $4trillion economy.

Currently, Nigeria’s GDP is a little above $400billion and when you have a small size GDP has we have to 180million Nigerians, there will be poverty, even if we have a saint in government and no cent is stolen, the size of the economy is too small to go round.

"In the years when we were excited about high oil price, Nigeria probably made less than $50billion from all those crude sells. In that same year in 2013, Disney World, a company that is marketing entertainment, cartoon, characters generated as much as $47billion". He said.

So, this brings us to the question, which presidential aspirant has the capacity to help Nigeria build a $4trillion economy and get us out of poverty?

The ANN Presidential Aspirant has outlined his plan to do so through a national economic development programme (nedp) in this video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDgLlGVjvo

Sleekfingers:
I quite agree with you. Are Nigerians really ready or want a better change? So many Nigerians are so caught up with apc and pdp...so we are far from seeing any change.

We just sit back at the comfort of homes and be complaining.

Nigerians are truly ready. They just don't want to be alone. Immediately the ANN role out it's massive grassroots support base in the course of the campaign, many will have no choice than join the moving train.

Let's continue to spread the message.
A new Nigeria is possible

baby124:
They have a lot of work to do. I don’t think they are doing well with their candidates for House Of Assembly and Senate. You need members of your party in these seats to run an effective presidency. Especially people who share your vision and not PDP and APC decampers.

Although, you are right in a way. But I can tell you that reps and senate under ANN will feature the best and most committed people of Nigeria.

You will recall that the minority leader in Ebonyi State decamped to ANN few weeks ago. It's because of the momentum of the ANN. You will also recall that a whole progressive faction of Sdp in Adamawa joined ANN. It's also because of the momentum.

While ANN doesn't have those big names who have stolen from this country, the party has committed patriots who are silently working to put this country on the map.

All parties have good people in the minority. ANN is opened to all progressives across the country. Let's all progressives assemble in a truly progressive party to create a new Nigeria

baby124:
I was for Sowore but he displayed a total lack of humility and patience at the Ooni’s palace. I welcome Olawepo. The guy tried for Nigeria. He and Sowore no doubt. I hope the youth give them a chance and shock PDP and APC

Olawepo Hashim is indeed the man with required skills and competence to lead this country out of poverty.
He has outlined his plan to create.

#$4TrillionEconomy4Nigeria

This is what we need to get the country out of poverty

Proffdada:
this is the best candidate so far

Olawepo Hashim is far better, far more competent and far more prepared

Smile4daddy:
All these little parties with little beginning candidate's ate they people that can change Nigeria and impact to humanity in general. But Nigerians will not vote them. It seems we have sold our soul to PDP and APC.

2019 will be different. We all want a party that can take Nigeria out of poverty. That's why ANN is the preferred platform. Olawepo Hashim is the man to #$4TrillionEconomy4Nigeria