Countering violent extremism through informal peace clubs in Plateau State, Nigeria.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2021
Project Number: A – NGA-2020-3049
Project Duration: April 1, 2020 – September 30, 2021
Project Status: Pilot
Project Code: “G4A” (Green for All) Thus, Green for the Farmers, Green for the Herders
Project Funders: Bread for the World, Germany.
Scope of Work Summary
Centre for Community Actions for Peace and Development (CCAPAD) began implementing the 18-month pilot project entitled “Countering violent radicalization in youths and the Farmers/Herders conflicts through the concept of Peace Club for violent Muslim and Christian communities in Plateau State, Nigeria” with support from Bread for the world Germany. The project was designed to address the rate of violent radicalization of the youths and the degeneration of trust and peaceful coexistence between the various tribes as occasioned by Hate Speech and the Farmers/Herders Conflicts that are fast swaying the Northern States of Nigeria.
CCAPAD believes that if the leadership of the farmers/ herders and other key critical community actors come together as partners with shared skills and knowledge regarding the implications of current responses to farmer-herder conflicts, then they will learn about each other’s culture, issues and interests, engage in a dialogue and participate in joint activities, then negative stereotypes and hate speech will be challenged, leading to a better understanding between the groups at the grassroots level.
The overall goal of the project is supported by only one specific objective and two expected results, which guide the project’s activities:
● Objective(s): the local collaboration between community stakeholders in conflict response and security management is strengthened.
Expected Result 1.1: Improved conflict and security management by the stakeholders in the project locations.
Expected Result 1.2: Farmer and herder communities improved engagement and collaboration through the implementation of joint projects to prevent and address the causes, drivers, and consequences of violent farmer-herder conflicts.
Executive Summary
CCAPAD launched the project “Countering violent radicalization in youths and the Farmers/Herders conflicts through the concept of Peace Club for violent Muslim and Christian communities in Plateau State, Nigeria” with support from Bread for the world Germany in April 2020. The activities were implemented in the two target local government areas (LGAs) of Bassa and Jos East in Plateau State where two high-risk communities were identified namely: Dutsen Kura and Agingi in Bassa LGA and Fobor and Angware in Jos East LGA.
A comprehensive planning process was involved to ensure that all activities are implemented with adequate consideration for suitable venue, relevant stakeholders, gender-social inclusion, resource persons knowledgeable on the subject, ownership and sustainability have all been carefully considered.
Individuals engaged in the project through all the activities have reported that their views about other peoples’ identity have changed, resulting in the shifting of their approaches from confrontational to non- confrontational. Beyond being equipped to resolve their conflicts as well as others, the trainings they have acquired have made them more informed and alert to early warning signals, early response and how to properly channel information to relevant authorities.
Lessons Learnt
Involving the stakeholders and project beneficiaries in the project design and implementation brings about more trust, confidence and gurantee sustainability of the projectin the communities and beyound the project’s life cycle.
Continous advocacy to all the authorities and other local decision makers helps in wining more goodwill and support for the project.
The consultative process in the planning and implementation of project activities can generate not only local ownership of the process but also ensure the activities take into consideration the local context, which is another critical determinant of success.
In the course of our interactions with local communities during our series of G4A Advocacy Visits, we learnt that the reasons why some conflicts are not managed at the grass-root level was because of the poor conflict handling skills by the traditional rulers due to their inexposure and lack of capacity. Therefore, a comprehensive Peacebuilding with emphasis on conflict handling skills is needed in order to modify their approaches/techniques for proper local conflict interventions. This will inform the later special training series that CCAPAD unveiled for the traditional Authorities in the communities.
As a criteria during the joint planning with the communities, the insistance of CCAPAD for women to be on the list of nominations as the leaderships of both the farmers and harders groups has paid off. Hitherto, according to one of the groups, though it is an unwritten culure it is usually seen as a misnorma for women to feature prominently or atleast compete with their men counterparts in decision – making. But for the brief period of their nominations, their engagements and performances, the leadership of this communities are already seeing the importance of these roles and are appreciative of them. As a lesson learnt therefore, involving the communities and local beneficiaries in the planning processes of interventions makes acceptance a lot easier.
The conflict parties are already getting exhausted as to the need and reasons for the recurring conflicts as confirmed by both the Herders and Farmers groups in their separate responces. This has therefore made the project highly acceptable and promising.
There is a serious need for the government to support the project participants, stakeholders and the communities at large in compensating those that sustain losses and casualties in these series of conflicts as well as resettle the Internally Displaced Persons. This will also imply that the Government takes serious steps in addressing some of the key issues raised in these reports, before they escalate.
Activities implemented
Activity 1: Project Design and Start – up
During the period under review, CCAPAD held series of strategic metings within the 1 month start up period with key project staff to further clrarly define roles and responsibilities assigned to staffs , planning with selected few partners and locals to ensure local inputs in planning and long-term ownership of the project by the benefitting communities.
Activity 2: Production of IEC materials (media component)
A large number of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Materials (e.g T-shirts and P. caps Flyers, posters and stickers ) with catchy masseges/nformation regarding the project were produced and distributed to stakeholders, CSOs and the general public.
Media Component: CCAPAD created platform for communities especially women, youth, girls and boys and Men to constructively engage with key security and government agencies as well as the media on issues affecting them through the G4A project intervention. Aside from some Radio Jingles, TV/Radio discussion programmes were aired monthly on local media stattions in Jos, which had created awareness and raised enlightenment on the project, enhancing the visibility, awareness and public support of the project initiative.
Activity 3: Review and Validation of Baseline Study
In keeping to the step-by step implementation procedure, the 1 month review and validation of baseline study was conducted in a participatory manner in the 2 target LGAs to bring the multiple perspectives from key stakeholders in assessing the current situation of the target beneficiaries and the context within which the project is located. The study included a desk review of key documents on the project itself as well as relevant available secondary sources of information (Preliminary field survey, key informant interviews). 100 (68 males and 32 female) leaders and community members from each of the 2 target LGAs were interviewed to collect and revalidated the baseline data. This insights provided CCAPAD with the idea to define the G4A project‘s priority areas, and to understand the impact of the project in each of the 2 LGAs of Bassa and Jos East.
Activity 4: Selection of peace club participants
This process involved a Series of engagement meetings with key stakeholders (Groups and Associations) of farmers/herders, local government authority who made nomination of the 20 project participants from the 2 target LGAs of Bassa and Jos East. The project participants were selected from their various groups and associations that are domicile in the project implementing communities of Bassa (Agingi and Dutsen Kura) and Jot East (Fobor and Angware) LGAs of Plateau State. Each project implementing community has 10 active participants; Bassa (5 males and 5 female) and in Jos East (6 male and 4 females ). Participants were selected at the community level by a community-based committee of the various associations working in close collaboration with the staff of Centre for Community Action for Peace and Development, CCAPAD.
Activity 5: Advocacy Visit to key Stakeholders
In order to increase collaboration between farmer and herder communities to develop joint, effective, sustainable local mechanisms for early warning response, dispute management, and violence prevention and mitigation at the community. CCAPAD conducted a 3-day advocacy visits and joint meeting in the two Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Bassa and Jos East, 46 actors (34 males, 12 female) from various government, security, civil society, leadership of the farmers/herders groups, religious groups and traditional institutions were visited. These advocacies yielded a lot of results as these agencies made commitments to participate in CCAPAD activities. As this project is CCAPAD’s first intervention in the two LGAs, many of the visits focused on engaging the necessary stakeholders in the communities and securing their support and buy-in for project activities.
Analysis of the attendance at the PEACE CLUB monthly consultative forum meetings held every month shows that the groups/institutions that showed commitments have representatives at every meeting.
Activity 6: Community Mobilization and Sentization
In the period of 1 week , CCAPAD carrid out communty mobilization in the 4 comunities of the 2 target LGAs in other to deepen public acceptability and strenghten community participation. These activity in each of the project implementation areas of Jos East and Bassa LGA respectively with few representations from various groups such as churches, mosques, women groups, the police, other security agencies, community development associations, in motor parks and market squares. The activity was used to sensitize the communities about the project, creating awareness about the project and gathered support for their personal and collective supports for the project. This is was successful as it can be atributed to the interest attracted from both within and outside the target communities, and built support for CCAPAD/ G4A project activities.
Activity 7: Farmers/Herders Trust and Capacity Building Workshop
From December 2020 to August 2021, CCAPAD held three (3), trainings bringing together all the 20 selected participants (11 males, 9 females), in each of the 2 target LGAs for the routine capacity building trainings. CCAPAD implemented a 3 – day Trust and Capacity building training in the month of December, bringing together all the selected participants from the target LGAs in the state. A total number of 20 participants were reached and trained. Participants included representatives from All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) as the farmers, and Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) as the herders, Local Government Council Representatives, Traditional and community leaders from each of the LGAs.
The training was facilitated by seasoned facilitators who are vast and knowledgeable on the subject matter and sought to build the capacities of stakeholders to identify early warning signs of violence and take proactive measures to mitigate violent conflicts. The trainers used practical approaches to promoting positive attitude changes between herders and farmers in favor of understanding conflict, peace, stereotype, perspective intergroup communication, communication in conflict, tolerance and collaborative problem-solving, providing practical skills and techniques for pinpointing potential flashpoints, defusing tensions, and transforming herder-farmer conflict situations away from adversarial confrontations in their immediate communities. Real life conflict scenarios were used for each of the topics and exercises covered by the trainer to increase understanding of the participants. The training was facilitated in both English and Hausa, making it easier for participants to understand the concepts.
Activity 8: Establishment and Running of Peace Club monthly Consultative Forum
The peace club consultative forums/platforms brought together community stakeholders, the leadership of farmers and herders for monthly meetings in each target LGAs to discuss peace and security issues such as protecting migratory routes, cattle control and develop joint solutions to prevent violence from occurring in their respective communities and develop action plans to address them. CCAPAD conducted the necessary advocacy visits to secure the buy-in of key community actors/stakeholders prior to establishing the platforms, which held their inaugural meetings in both LGAs in December 2020. The platform/consultative forums having their monthly meetings at the end every of month. The dialogues in this forum has been a space for a collaborative and non- adversial solution seeking forum with a security presence and relative sense of trust.
So far the forum from its inception to date, 8 monthly meetings were held , 8 in each of Bassa and Jos East LGAs – engaging the entire project beneficiaries (11 males, 9 females).
Activity 9: Exchange Visit between Peace Clubs
In line with the project planned activity for the quarter under review, the 2 peace clubs from the 2 project areas of Jos East and Bassa LGA carried out one exchange visit. The visit entails that each peace club will visit its counterpart in the various communities and vice versa. The essence of the exchange visit is to provide the project participants the opportunity to share ideas, experiences, lessons learnt and plans for future activities and new innovations.
The 2-day exchange visit between the peace clubs from Jos East and Bassa LGAs was to under-study each other’s experiences as forum/platform, interact with key stakeholders and draw lessons learnt from the positive roles they are playing in preventing and intervening in the farmers and herders conflicts in their respective communities.
During the visit, the 10 project beneficiaries/peace club members from Bassa visited and interacted with deputy chairman of the council, community and traditional leaders from the farmers and herders communities within the project area of Jos East with a view of learning their traditional or local strategies of resolving the conflicts in their communities.
In a like manner, Bassa team also reciprocally hosted the 10 project beneficiaries/peace club members from Jos East, in the same activity, but with slight modifications as they were taken to a predominantly Fulani settlement, known as Mararaban Dare in Bassa, where they had interfaced directly with the community people on their experiences on the farmers/herders conflict and how they are coping presently.
At the end of the visit, the teams further discussed their findings, share experiences, compare notes and ways forward in using the peace club consultative forum in synergizing and collaborating with the traditional leaders and other stakeholders in promoting peaceful coexistence. .
Activity 10: Mentorship Mentoring Visit
M&E Activities
Monitoring Visits:
CCAPAD’s project team conducted activity monitoring visits in the two target Local Government Areas of the states to follow up on action plans and resolutions made during the workshop and to also explore the perception of the community members and other stakeholders on the project. The visit was used to monitor activity implementation and engagements between farmers, herders and other project stakeholders within the communities. During these visits, the project participants from the communities expressed that their perceptions about the herder/farmer conflict will change as they have gotten more understanding of other communities and the project idea. The visits also revealed some lessons and areas of strengthening implementation of the project such as the need to carry out further advocacy visits to the speaker of the Plateau State house of legislative assembly to encourage him to support the project participants, stakeholders and the communities at large as there are silent issues on the farmers/herders conflict if not resolved amicably will definitely escalate. The visit to these communities revealed that more herder women are willing to actively participate in project activities, so there is need to deliberately explore safe spaces and opportunities for them to do so.
In contribution to the project indicators, the participants were able to implement the following activities jointly as farmers and herders:
Joint Christmas feast with the security in Bassa and Jos East LGAs (As separately conducted by the two teams)
The activity was geared towards intimating and introducing the state and non – state security to the G4A peace club consultative forum that was recenttly estblished and with a view to developing partnerships with the security agents that is aimed at addressing identified challenges holistically in the farmers/ herders conflit in communities of Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State and to also to raise awareness of the forums planned activities in some communities of Bassa.
The project participants planned and implanted the activity which had the following objective(s) to:
Express sympathy and support for all the state and non – state security as the front-line workers.
Encourage them (the security) to do more and establish process of accountability and fair play.
To facilitate the implementation of the activity as designed in the action plan, the peace club consultative forum, gathered all the security agents in the LGA for a joint Christmas feast to celebrate the Christmas and to show appreciation and gratitude to the security personnel for the efforts they have been putting in ensuring that lives and properties are being protected. The activity was conducted on the 26th December, 2020 with the police divisional headquarters as the venue.
Key security agencies present at the feast were the; Divisional Police Officers (DPO), representative Department of the State Security (DSS), Nigerian Immigration service, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp, Boys Brigade of Nigeria, Local Hunters corp, Vigilante Group of Nigeria, National Orientation Agency and aid group of Jama’atul Nasir Islam (JNI).
The highlight of the event was the brief remarks given by SOME representatives of both the state and non-state security operatives present at the event that were summarilly captured thus:
•Plateau state looks like a fragile community, gone are those days that people step into communities as they wish” this intervention is very good as it will complement the efforts made in sustaining the peace process. It is important for people in the communities to brainstorm and relate with the security personnel to safe guard lives and properties. ( Representative of the Nigerian Immigration Service)
•Our thanks goes to CCAPAD for organizing this meeting, we hope that the bond been created/established today will take us to greater heights and we hope to use this network to work together. ( Representative of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC)
•The Divisional police officer (DPO) said he,” on behalf of the police, is expressing his joy and gratitude to the CCAPAD team for organizing this meeting in this community as it will go a long way in calming down the security challenges experienced in the community.” For us to enjoy peace, we must learn how to give accurate and reliable information to the relevant security agencies and other relevant stakeholders.” Let this meeting be a continuous one, there are going to be obstacles but as the the CCAPAD peace club consultative forum, do not to be discouraged and as the police, we are ever ready to support and work together with you”.
•This meeting is very important to us as the vigilante group of Nigeria has never been applauded by any organization for what we have been doing. CCAPAD is the first organization to applaud the VGN for their efforts in maintaining law and order in the communities. We are saying thank you to CCAPAD for organizing this meeting to commend the efforts of the security agencies in the community. We pray that that other organizations will come and complement CCAPAD’s effort.” Representative of the VGN”
Peace Awareness Campaign in Bassa LGA and Jos East ( As separately conducted by the two teams)
The overall objective of the activity was to;
Propagate peace and peaceful coexistence between the farmers and herders in Bassa LGA.
Create awareness on early warning signs and early response among the people domicile in the communities of Bassa LGA.
Overall, the community members were appreciative of the inclusiveness and neutrality of CCAPAD’s work, respect for humanity, peaceful coexistence and traditions of the people (farmers and herders) was emphasized and the participatory approaches adopted. They are also taking actions within their communities aimed at promoting peace.
The joint peace initiatives implemented by the local herders/farmers groups has in a way increase the level of intercultural understanding, trust and tolerance among the people in the two targeted LGAs. As the community members have giving the support to working with the project participants in implementing the action plan developed and other areas that will bring about improved peaceful and harmonoius coexistance between the farmers and herders.
Joint community work ( Bush clearing)
As part of their mandate to prevent conflict between the farmers and herders in the communities of the project areas, the forum/platform identified a particular route in one of the communities of Bassa LGA known as dogon daji where local crimes are being committed and thier risks are becoming high. The platform came out with a locally based initiative of crime prevention with support/collaboration of the farmers, herders and commercial motor cycle riders from nearby villages. To compliment the efforts of the security agencies, on the 8th of May, 2021, the local CCAPAD beneficiaries group mobilized youths, women, men, the ward heads to clear the bush and small trees along the route which is been perceived as the hide out of the crime for perpetrating their evil act which if not prevented will lead to a serious conflict between the farmers and herders. As part of their efforts to increase the sense of safety and security of the residents and to respond to community concerns, they mounted a sign post along the route to signify its safety.
Monitoring Visits
To ensure project sustainability of the project initiative and activities, the CCAPAD project team is always on the field every month for continuous follow-up and routine monitoring of project beneficiaries which ranged from frequent contact with beneficiaries during their monthly meetings and other implemented activities in the 2 project areas of Jos East and Bassa LGAs, and for support and inquiries on their progress and possible challenges that they may envisage in course of implementing their peace initiatives in their respective communities.
This local coordination within each community has proven to be a necessity as the project beneficiaries have been able to come out with some of the outlined activities and joint activities contributing to project objectives and indicators:
Advocacy Visits
To facilitate the visibility and implementation of the project in different communities of the 2 project areas of Jos East and Bassa LGAs, the peace club consultative forums carried out advocacy visits to key stakeholders in some farmers dominant communities and herders dominant communities who were perceived to be communities that farmers or herders cannot go and intermingle freely with herders free or vice versa. These advocacies where carried out from April 4th to 7th, 2021.
Highpoint of the activity, was to intimate and introduce the Community Leaders and other stakeholders (chairmen of the various local government, traditional/community leaders and their council members) of efforts the forum/platform is making and also future plans on intervening and preventing of the farmers and herders conflicts in the communities and also to foster peaceful coexistence between the farmer and herders in the 2 project areas. And also seek for their support and buy-in on the the joint effort of the farmers/herders groups.
Peace club consultative forum’s advocacy visits at a Glance:
1: Condolence visit to a herder family in Bassa LGA
2: Advocacy visit to Raffiki, a herder community (known as Rugga) in Bassa LGA.
3: Advocacy visit to Dutsen Kura community.
4: Advocacy visit to Agingi community who are predominantly farmers.
5: Advocacy visit to Marraban Dare community
The advocacy visits paved the way for community buy-in of the local project initiative of the group and of course made subsequent engagements with them effective. All stakeholders visited were met, supports, pledges, buy-in and commitments on peaceful coexistence were secured.
During these visits, community members expressed that their perceptions about the herder and farmer conflict has changed as they got more understanding of other communities. The visits also revealed some lessons and areas of strengthening implementation of the project such as the need to carry out further advocacy visits to the local government chairmen and other key community stakeholders to encourage them to support communities. This has since been included in forums action plans. Furthermore, the visit revealed that need to include more herder women who are willing to actively participate in project activities, so there is need to deliberately explore safe spaces and opportunities for them to do so. This is very important for the project to meet its targets for women participation and also capture and address the views and perception of women in project planning and implementation.
Summary of the M&E Report:
Locally identified and trained beneficiaries (5f/15m) involved in the workshop/training are formed into structures with the all-important mandate of analyzing and addressing conflict issues in their communities and also linking the key decision makers in both LGAs to the realities and perspectives of the conflict
A functional Peace Club platform was established with monthly meetings to be held every month and beyond the project life cycle.
20 beneficiaries involved in this project are engaged in the activities of the platform and had so far held nine (9) monthly meetings in the months of December 2020 to August 2021.
Stories of personal transformation of the project beneficiaries and their resolve to peaceful coexistence.
From Step down trainings on early warning and early response to local communities.
Sustained dialogue forums for the conflicting leadership of herders and farmers from the local communities.
Implementation of 4 – out the 6 – joint project initiatives between herders and farmers to prevent conflict in the various project communities.
Sustainability
CCAPAD’s ability to build the capacities of the farmers and herders with the concept of peacebuilding had contributed in the various groups to learn about each other’s culture, interest, engaged in the dialogues and participated in joint activities leading to a better understanding between the groups at community level. And also reduction in the incidences of violence against women and girls in the various communities of the 2 target LGAs. The G4A project had the deliberately involved religious, traditional and Social/Opinion Leaders and Community members at every stage of the project implementation processes; responding to relevant needs from the perspective of the beneficiaries and the communities which is aimed to strengthen capacity building of the project beneficiaries and consistent with other initiatives, also included seeking the approval of community leaders for the project’s implementation in their communities, this has promoted a deeper understanding of the process and a degree of ownership of the project’s outcomes. The project is also leverage on the wealth of the local experience of the community members that have been be empowered to form an integral part of the project implementation team and collaborate with all interested groups that seek permanent, workable resolution of the conflict, to be able to guarantee community ownership of the project, beyond its life cycle.
By engaging local actors and stakeholders directly in the target areas, building relationships between them and increasing their capacity to address conflict issues in their communities, CCAPAD’s project impact will be sustained by the participants as they continue to take ownership of this approach and the platforms used to foster collaboration and address the causes of conflict between farmers and herders. This has been evident in the stories shared above that outline their new found capacity to respond to and address conflict issues before violence breaks out or spreads. The commitment of the project beneficiaries to the project peace club consultative forum, have also demonstrated their interest in sustaining the forum/platform beyond the scope of the “G4A” project intervention. The support of local authorities has been evidenced by their participation in the monthly peace club consultative meetings, such as one of the prominent ardos in Jos East LGA and a prince from one of the chiefdoms in Bassa LGA who personally participate in the monthly meetings, rather than sending representatives. The space for the monthly meetings were also given free of charge by the local communities in the two target LGAs. The interest shown by the Jos East local government deputy chairman in providing support to sustain the project peace clubs has provided an additional opportunity to further institutionalize the project platforms.