Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism in Nigeria: The State of Community Engagement

In 2017, the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) produced a National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism in conformity with a presidential directive. The document, in terms of core objectives, guiding principles and core constituencies and action plan contents, provide a rich policy basis for engaging with the challenges of violent extremism in Nigeria. The document is quite comprehensive in identifying the core constituencies to focus on, including women and girls, families, schools and school teachers, community leaders, and faith-based organisations (FBOs). Others include health and social workers, civil society organisations, media and social media influencers, artists and social mobilisers, political leaders, private sector (and markets), policing and civil-military relations. This suggests mindfulness of the relevant stakeholders on which to focus actions to prevent, counter violent extremism and promote security.

Similarly, among the priority components, the third one is engaging communities and building resilience. While every other component is important, community engagement is crucial. Despite this document and its rich policy provision, deaths related to terror, banditry and extremism since 2017, when the document was published, have not been mitigated significantly. This suggests gaps at the implementation points, especially the community-level engagement. The rich potential of the community as the core point of action for the prevention and countering of violent extremism is yet to be fully harnessed.

Hence, the edition of Nextier SPD Policy Weekly interrogates the state of community engagement in the light of the policy framework for preventing and countering violent extremism.

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