Grace Awodu is the Head, Gender, Peace and Security Unit, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution Abuja. In this interview with ENE OSHABA, she speaks on the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 and the need for Nigeria to take the lead in its implementation.
How would you assess the UNSCR progress?
I think the women have done a lot and they can do better. They have been able to galvanize energies across gender to implement the National Action Plan; and the National Action Plan is the agenda that they have set for the country to ensure that women are integrated into all aspects of peace building, in leadership, political leadership, and empowerment.
Also, there is focus on fighting gender based violence (GBV) because the resolution 1325, from which the action plan is drawn, also wants the promotion of gender inclusion and works against gender discrimination. That’s where the gender based violence comes in.
You know that when we talk of GBV, we are talking of so many ways in which women are disadvantaged, intentionally some are built into the social structures that have been age-long they have been perpetrated also by the patriarchy that we have not just in Nigeria, but across board.
However, you know change is the only permanent thing in life and we are in a global village, what affects one person in one part of the world affects the other.
The 1325 is a bill of rights for women’s inclusion in peace processes. Why? This is because women are more impacted. Yes, men are killed but women are also now killed in armed conflicts and in addition to being killed there are other things that they suffer as the consequence of the conflict.
So, going forward if both sexes are stakeholders in conflict they should also be partners in the resolution of conflicts, especially because there is an acknowledgement that women’s inclusion will make peace initiative more sustainable.
Are you saying sustainable peace is missing in Nigeria because women are not involved?
Yes, categorically yes! This is because it is not just my statement; it is what the entire members of the UN, the leadership of countries have said. They decided it, it is written in black and white in the Resolution 1325.
You see the preamble; it tells you that peace will be sustainable. Peacemaking, peace building, will be sustainable when you have a gender inclusive peace process.
How can women impact these processes and ensure it is sustainable?
Now, in every community, you have men, you have women. It’s not like a dormitory, a boy’s dormitory or a girl’s dormitory. So, they are equal partners in any community. As it affects the men it affects the woman.
So, for instance, when you want to initiate a peace process, you want to do a panel of inquiry and you want to see how you can mediate in a conflict, the men should not be the one speaking for everybody because they will be speaking from the perspective of men.
It’s not one person fits all and gives the solution to everything. There are gendered issues that affect women, issues that women have more understanding about.
Apart from that, women have a higher stake in any community in conflict settings. Why? Because when there’s a conflict in any community, whoever dies is her child. Yes, you can also say it’s the man’s child too, but women carry the babies for nine months and during that pregnancy period, their lives are also at stake till they get to the point of delivery.
They are highly at risk hence if they come out of delivery alive, it is victory. So that’s why you see women are always passionate about their children. You see in war or violent conflict where there is an invasion and everybody takes off but she will not take off because she has a child.
The fact that she has a child will slow her down; she can’t run with others because children cannot run at a fast pace. She has to slow down and take care of that and ensure that the safety of the children and in that process, she gets trapped. And when she gets trapped, in most of these cases, you discover that they are subjected to sexual exploitation and sexual violence a lot of the times because within a conflict setting there is no economy running; there is no farming going on; there is no industry. No business thrives and the children must feed. So, whatever it takes for the children to be alive, she will do it. This is the situation in most cases, whether in Africa or outside Africa.
So, she has more interest in the resolution of the conflict so that she can return to her natural habitat. Her natural habitat is the home because she’s the nurturer of children.
How exactly can women get to these decision tables?
You don’t need all the education in the world to be a peace builder or to be a peacemaker, even that document is a landmark document, why? Because for the first time in years, all the five superpowers conceded, they all unanimously agreed and you know the Security Council is the executive arm of the UN, if one of them said no, it is no.
As many as they are in the General Assembly, all the heads of states put together whatever they decide, if the Security Council says no, it is no! That is why it is a mandate to be implemented across the world. So those countries that signed have made a commitment to implement it.
It recognises that women have been resolving conflicts and effectively at informal level. So what they’re asking now is that they should be included at formal level since they have been effective at that level; don’t neglect them let their voices be heard. Let what concerns them be reflected.
You know that in those days before the reforms when it came to relief, humanitarian interventions they would just pack general things and give them they did not consider that there will be pregnant women will have menstrual periods that they will be so weak and may need good sanitation because of their peculiar physiology.
Women will be breastfeeding, they didn’t think of that they were not bringing blankets and all those things and also their safety even within refugee camps were not considered and so they become vulnerable at the refugee camps. They were vulnerable and being molested.
So, the 1325 has brought a clear template on how to engage, how to include. Now for any woman to be part of the peace building process.
There are different components; there is the one that they provide relief; there’s the one that they do empowerment; there are different types that they do in order to converge at sustainable peace process.
The woman has also to have her skills developed, and that is the role of CSO’s, that is the role of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution and anybody who has done some training and can step down the training because every trade has its secrets.
There’s a way to go about initiating or facilitating peace and that is why the rules have been broken several times.
What somebody who is schooled in peace building will immediately detect somebody who is just passionate at resolving conflict but is failing will not understand that is why it is failing.
So there’s need, whether a man or a woman, there’s a need to build capacity and it is not just woman’s capacity, build men capacity in the aspect of gender sensitivity to know that everybody are equal stakeholders in any community. What affects you affects me and vice versa. So going forward when you want to resolve conflict let all of us go together and resolve it.
Don’t you see patriarchy affecting the implementation of the Resolution?
The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution gives advisory to governments. We also do publications.
Peace building is not a one main show, government business is to provide the enabling environment and also to coordinate efforts; that provision of enabling environment is the major role of government then everybody have their roles and need to take responsibility because government alone cannot do everything, everybody has a stake and where government is failing, it is the responsibility of civil society to let it know or call it order to take responsibility, and that is because government cannot monitor itself. So, if government is failing, it is the fault of civil society, not the fault of government because government thinks they are doing well.
How would you assess the effects of insecurity on the Nigerian woman?
Insecurity affects everybody everywhere. There’s nobody who’s travelling now that the attackers will first look at and say ‘this is a woman or man’ before they attack. So, everybody’s hands need to be on deck.
However, I think that there should be a national emergency on security so that every state can look at its own perimeters and then call a security meeting, and they agree on how to go but the problem is. If one man thinks he knows everything that is when we will fail. But if you call everybody including the business community, you don’t even need to tell them that these are the challenges.
The only challenge government will always have today, yesterday and forever is money. They can’t have enough funds so there’s need for partnership. Neighbourhood groups can be formed. In every society in every area, you have different categories of residents. If say the traditional ruler, for instance, is the chief security officer of his community what about in the urban centres who takes charge? The counsellor is a politician, but there has to be a way of bringing the two of them together because it is a national emergency everybody should be talking about it. What problem do we have in this community? How do we address it? Everybody sit down and let’s talks and let’s agree on the way forward.
If community A or B is doing this or that, whatever decisions are taken government is aware and because government wants this problem to be solved that is why it has declared it a national emergency but that does not mean that they are sending soldiers to the streets. No, education now is suffering. The issue of girls enrolment in school is suffering because of the kidnappings.
So, declare a national emergency on education and at another time, you may decide to take these things in sequence, you declare health emergency next. Everybody comes on board: the trade unions, the students, the parents are involved in the matter and it will be resolved. Nigerians are not difficult people I think all they just ask for is the basic attention. The government itself cannot do everything. Communities also need to rely on partnership with their neighbours so that there won’t be infiltrations. But overall we all have to have an understanding. Conflict itself is not negative. It is when it becomes violent that it is negative. And that is what should be discouraged. Everybody should go about sensitising one another; religious organisations, especially should focus on families. Now, you don’t have attention. Parents don’t pay attention to children anymore because everybody is looking for how to survive. If the man alone was able to feed the entire family probably the woman will be relaxed and actually just be doing one small thing just so that she can be assured that she’s not useless.
So what advice do you have for Nigeria, especially as it concerns the UN1325 resolution?
Nigeria is a major stakeholder in global politics and it has the highest stake in Africa than all the other countries put together. Why? Because Nigeria is the largest black nation in the world and has a pride of place. If you have ever travelled out of this country, you will know how easily you will become an emergency PR person for Nigeria.
See, when you get out there you are so proud that you are a Nigerian, other Africans claim to be Nigerians so they count them as Nigerians. But it will take only a Nigerian to tell you that this one is not a Nigerian. We have this pride of place hence when laudable initiatives like these are agreed on, it is good we implement them.
Smaller nations in Africa have gone ahead of us to implement Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. It is not about coming to take men’s roles, it is about giving both men and women level playing ground to participate, to bring their expertise to bear.
But where it has become obvious that women are highly disadvantaged in terms of representation then an affirmative action must be allowed. Why? We have precedence, we have federal character policy in Nigeria and the federal Character is to allow those ethnic nationalities or states that were not able to meet up to set criteria to be given preferential treatment to enable them access available opportunities.
Now, women are greatly disadvantaged, they need that kind of programme to also get to a level where you could say there is equity.
Now, we’re not saying because we want you to give women affirmative action that we are saying that you should take nonentities. We have women with capacities. We are asking that everybody should support women; women should support women to achieve this. And with that, everybody benefits, especially as we move to the next generation.
We are trying to make the next generation understand what inclusion means.
