In a bid to uphold the right to Freedom of Religion and Belief, FoRB, in Nigeria and prevent conflicts rooted in religious differences, a nongovernmental organisation is organising a national conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
The conference themed “Building a Community of Practice and Promoting Freedom of Religion or Beliefs in Nigeria,” is organized by the NGO, Search for Common Ground, in collaboration with the Dutch Embassy in Nigeria.
Country Director of Search for Common Ground, Fatima Abubakar, at a press briefing in Abuja, said the move forms part of the “Promoting and Protecting Freedom of Religion and Belief”, PP-FORB, project.
She said it also focused on empowering key figures including human rights actors, journalists, civil society groups, and influencers to prevent conflicts rooted in religious differences.
She said “A significant development at the conference is the launch of a toll-free reporting line dedicated to incidents that infringe on religious freedom. To ensure effective management of these reports, a proactive dashboard has been established to channel them to the relevant authorities, including the National Human Rights Commission, the National Orientation Agency, the Legal Aid Council, Nextier, the police, and FIDA.”
Abubakar, explained that the conference represents an opportunity for media professionals to contribute to the development of a robust community of practice on Promoting Freedom of Religion or Belief in Nigeria.
While fielding questions on efforts and purpose by Search in Nigeria said ‘We started with protecting and promoting holy sites as sacred places or sanctuary for peace that gave us an entry point learn the dynamics in Nigeria to identify the issues and then also learn the nuances around the north and south the differences, the issues, the threat and the drivers we collected recommendations from religious actors, legal practitioners, civil society organizations and communities.”
She added, “it has also informed the FoRB strategy that we have that seats are four projects in implementing activities at different levels for national, regional, state or community level, working with different actors for those communities as well.
“We do recognize the differences in the manifestation of issues in the south western region versus what was seen in the northern region and would keep advocating not just among other actors as well, to join the community of practice to do joint analysis or joint initiatives to address issues related to freedom of religion or belief or religious tensions more.”
“A lot more needs to be done. And that is why we are using this conference tomorrow to keep reminding people, a lot of work needs to be done, not just now, several actors have been putting in effort.
“We need to not work in silos, we need to synergize. And we also need to ensure that our dependency levels especially at a national level, there’s awareness of these interventions, and we will advocate on behalf of Communities what issues”
Also Speaking Project manager, Search for Common Ground Nigeria, Daniel Ogabiela said, “We’re building this community of practice, where people will come. safe place where people can interact. And then synergize all our actions was Elimination of All Forms of validation, around freedom of religion and belief to become one.
“We trained five religious leaders from each of these zones – high-level figures capable of making impacts at the various religious regions – as a first step. Then, we proceeded to train 30 lawyers. Initially, we developed a curriculum and trained the first 30 at the national level, in Abuja.
“Subsequently, we extended the training to all the regional groups in the Northwest and Northeast, with plans to cover all regions and train 30 individuals in each. At the end of this process, we will have trained a total of 280 lawyers to advance freedom.”
