In recent times, policymakers and practitioners have recognized that hard counterterrorism measures alone cannot address terrorism or violent extremism, a threat that is increasingly diffuse and unpredictable.
Meanwhile, the soft approach to counter terrorism and violent extremism seeks to explore preventive measures that include addressing the root causes of terrorism, and most importantly, engaging local communities to win their hearts and minds to discourage radicalization and recruitment activities.
As poor awareness at community levels hamper collective monitoring and timely response to warning signals of potential terrorists or violent extremists’ activities, the security situation in Nigeria has become increasingly complex and uncertain, as various non-state armed groups have emerged and consolidated coercive power to terrorize the population in Nigeria, as evident with the activities of the insurgent groups in the North East of Nigeria.
While community resilience is about promoting the many systems that contribute to a community’s overall well-being, community inactions against suspected threat signals enable infiltration of terrorists and violent extremists’ activities. This includes the growing impact of globalization that facilitates the virtual presence of violent extremism as observed in unguarded speeches or essays inciting ethno-religious violence; rallying support for violence with messages in praise of terrorists; unsolicited advice on how to obtain or make weapons.
As a result, interventions at any level must address the criticality of major drivers of terrorism and violent extremism like social exclusion, over-politicisation of policies, marginalisation, human right violation, climate change impact, environmental degradation, social inequality. It is time for a comprehensive strategy at policy level to challenge radicalisation ideology through targeted counter-terrorism narratives to prevent terrorism and violent extremism.
This cannot be achieved without building synergy among community and response institutions to create mutual respect and understanding in intelligence gathering on threat signals and facilitate timely/coordinated response as well as established community reporting mechanisms through well-informed and designated Community Observers to identify and report threat signals for timely response.
Efforts at building community resilience must move from a reactive to a more proactive and preventive approach that focuses on countering violent extremism in the North East. This includes taking cognisance of a broad cross-section of policy domains that increase active participation of the range of actors in development, conflict prevention and mitigation, education, culture, and diplomacy.
Recent engagements in the North East by Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, financed by GIABA-ECOWAS, have observed the imperative of appropriate policy consideration for proactive measures to effectively address the enabling environment for violent extremism, such as the socio-economic conditions, grievances, and ideologies that may contribute to the violent radicalization and mobilization of individuals and groups.
Building resilience, especially in the context of communities facing various challenges and trauma arising from the activities of terrorists and violent extremists must involve developing the ability to adapt, recover, and thrive despite adversity.
Just as de-radicalisation activities must provide psycho-social support considering at-risk population to prevent infiltration of radicalisation ideology; building sense of ownership, inclusion and responsibility of the traditional institutions through dedicated provisions in the Constitution; and inclusive dialogue and sensitisation at community levels, respect to human rights and the rule of law.
It is highly recommended to strengthen the capacity of local governments for efficient service delivery and security through thorough monitoring and supervision of the implementation of Local Government Autonomy by Civil Society for maximum accountability, while promoting respect for human rights, diversity and culture of global citizenship in schools and universities, to prevent infiltration of extremist ideology.
Lastly, at institutional levels, awareness must be accelerated to encourage citizens to make timely report of suspicious activities of terrorists and violent extremists through the established Community Security Architecture, Nigeria Police Complaint Response Unit, NPF-CRU, Intelligence and Investigation Unit of the NSCDC, established Early Warning Early Response Situation Room.
