The Coordinator Counter Terrorism Centre, Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Yem Musa, has explained that the Monitoring and Evaluation (M and E) methodologies will help guide State and non-state actors as they develop new policy framework to also monitor the impact of the strategies to prevent and counter violent extremism in Nigeria.
Musa while speaking at the launch of the policy framework and national action plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) implementation in Nigeria organised by ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) in Abuja on Thursday, said it will further act as a tool for identifying and tracking and measuring progress towards common indicators during project execution.
According to him, this framework is critical to building a strong, national evidence base around Policy Framework and National Action Plan for PCVE implementation in Nigeria.
Also, ActionAid Nigeria’s Country Director, Ene Obi said within the last few years, violence has become fatally routine and a daily affair in the country, such that acts of violence in their intensity, scale, and frequency have become endemic, and rapidly acquiring a pandemic nature.
The Country Director who was represented by the Director Resource Mobilization and Innovation, AAN, Andrew Memedu said the statistics are very alarming, damning, and requires dire urgency in addressing the situation.
In her words “In May 2022, at the commemoration of the National Day of Mourning, Global Rights, a Nigeria Civil Society Organisation [CSO) disclosed that at least 14,641 people have died from mass atrocities perpetrated across all geo-political zones in Nigeria between January 2019 and December 2021.
“This figure includes 6,895 fatalities because of mass atrocities in 2021 compared to 4,556 in 2020 and 3,188 recorded in 2019. This trend is not declining, instead it shows a significant increase of more than 116% over the 2019 figure in 2021.
“Within the last 6 years, ActionAid has successfully implemented the 1st and 2nd phases of a System and Structure Strengthening Approach against Radicalization to Violent Extremism (SARVE) project in Kogi, Nasarawa and most recently, Kano and Kaduna state.
“Within this period, the project, funded by the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF) supported building of community resilience against radicalization to violent extremism through strengthening of community agencies, enactment of laws and creating of economic empowerment for youth and women,” she said.
