Nigeria’s Consultant to UN-Women, Professor Chris Kwaja, has encouraged Government to urgently look at ways of demilitarising peace which was the cheapest means of promoting peace than the old reactive security measures it spends much on.
He gave the advice Tuesday while speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2-Day Planning/Review Workshop with Women Peace, and Security (WPS Phase II) Structures in Plateau State, organised by UN-Women in collaboration with State Ministry for Women Affairs and Social Development as sponsored by Norwegian Embassy, held at the Valada Hotel and Resort Jos, the state capital.
He commended the partners for building an edifice that has attracted the support of UN-Women and urged them to think through impact saying, “we have made in peace building programmes in the Country, but not made in security because we have proffer means that can nip in the bud what triggers insecurity.
“Unfortunately, we are dealing with a component in country and not so much willing to prioritised peace building, that is why when there is problem, government is ready to approve Fifty Million Naira (#50,000,000) to security and give Five Million (#5,000,000) to peace building work.
“Let us see how we can demilitarise peace by voicing because if we prioritise process that is impact in peaceful coexistence, it will be cheaper to invest in peace than to invest in security. We must engage government in peace building development and women in peace and security”, Kwaja advised.
Earlier, the Programme Manager of WPS, Peter Mancha, said the essence of this 2-Day Planning/Review Workshop was for them to have a review meeting and analyse the progress made so far and agreed on ways of addressing some of these challenges witnessed over time and commended Plateau State for ranking second in WPS process.
On her part, Justina Mike, of the Women Peace Mentors in Plateau State, commended the UN-Women for the wonderful support given to them and hope that more of this would be a seen so that, more voices could be heard in Nigeria.
Also, the State Coordinator of HeForShe Network, Da Dalyop Dudu, observed that must of it members have not been up to date in what the Network programme and called on the UN-Women to train its members to understand the importance of this network.
Declaring the workshop opened, the Plateau State Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Hassana Ayika, represented by the Ministry’s Director of Social Welfare, Mrs. Justina Guful, called on stakeholders to open up and say what their challenges were so that, they would be able to look at them and proffer solution to the problem. There were presentations by respective partners.
