Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The United Nation (UN) has advised the Nigerian government on the need to complement military force with dialogue in the new national security strategy to tactical insecurity in the north east, assuring of putting at the country’s disposal its deep reservoir of expertise, both in human and material resources.
This is even as it noted that Nigeria’s security crises were complicated with a range of typologies, saying banditry in the North West is combined with terrorism and therefore, asked the Federal Government to deploy tool of dialogue with force in fighting insurgency and banditry.
This is even as it said that the international body has invested an average of $1.5 billion annually to support the humanitarian and development efforts of the federal government.
The UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon disclosed this after leading the world body’s delegation for a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja on Monday.
The team were on a thank you visit to Buhari particularly for the country’s support to multilateralism and the rehabilitation of the UN house in abuja after it was attacked by terrorists in August of 2011 leading to the death of 21 people.
The UN envoy classified the security crises bedeviling the country into three, listing them as identity-based conflicts, resource-based conflicts and power-based conflicts, each of which he said required different approaches and solutions to tackle it.
According to him, the attempt to find solution to banditry in Nigeria, for instance, is complicated as a result of its combination with terrorism, insisting that solution to this range of security crises is difficult to decipher because each of them has to be separately dealt with.
He also added that solutions to the crises must be pursued from the political, economic and social perspectives adding that the relationship among the three factors must be established in the efforts to address issues of criminality, banditry and terrorism in Nigeria.
“So, the conflict is still ongoing. It’s not over. But today again, I told Mr. President that in addition to the military effort, that there is need to complement that with enhanced dialogue and political approach process in search of durable solution to the crisis. So, we think various approaches have to be used to find a solution. But when you talk about conflicts in Nigeria, we are talking about three typologies.”
“There is no one size fits all. You have identity-based conflicts, resource-based and power-based conflicts. Each of those typologies require different approaches and solutions. That is the complex axis we are dealing with.”