By Ahmed Ahmed
An NGO, The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC) is to raise stakeholders consciousness against terrorism financing and violent extremism in Bauchi
Dr Jimoh Abubakar of the CISLAC in his presentation on Friday at a two-day workshop for Bauchi stakeholders on preventing terrorism financing and violent extremism.
He explained that the fundamental objective of the workshop is to raise community consciousness against terrorism financing and violent extremism.
“In the past, we observed that intervention in counterterrorism was focused at the top level without carrying the communities along.
“So we are complementing the government and security agencies to casket some of their duties.” Abubakar said
He added that the participants who are driven from the communities are taught about the impact of early warning and early response.
According to him, there is a signal and response for every disaster, “but sometimes people report incidents instead of signals.
“Some communities observed things going on with security threats but normalized them until that incident struck before residents reported.
“So we are concerned about making the communities to be conflict sensitive, to ensure reporting signals to response institutions on the happening around.”he said
Jimoh added that knowing the ways, manners, and institutions to report conflict signals is paramount.
He insisted that most of the time, communities serve as enablers of conflicts by keeping mute on signals observed.
Jimoh warned the communities to avoid celebrating wealth, which sources are suspicious or unknown.
He added that “the drivers of violence extremism include poverty and marginalization.
“We want to have a sensitized community, traditional rulers, religious leaders, community observers in terms of adequate communication and response.”
Earlier, SP Ahmed Wakil, Police Spokesperson of Bauchi Command emphasised the magnanimity of early detection, reporting, prevention, and proactive response to violent extremism.
He highlighted that his goodwill message matches the Community Policing axiom: “If you see something (credible intelligence), say something” to trust-worthy stakeholders in the Community Networks and Security Agencies.
According to Wakil, “The axiom saliently underscores the tenacious protection of the informant’s identity and discreet utilization of intelligence on the need-to-know principle.
Wakil noted that in policing, the early warning system involves the technology, associated policies, and proceedings designed to predict and mitigate the harm of human-militated disaster events occasioned by violent extremism.
The stakeholders include security agencies, traditional leaders, civil society organizations, youth groups, and media practitioners.