The newly appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors for the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding, Mr Kolawole Olatosimi, has promised to sustain the campaign for peace and conflict resolution in the country by strengthening peacebuilding structures.
He stated this after the inauguration ceremony during the WENAP 2023 General Assembly in Abuja with the theme “Strengthening Peacebuilding Structures: Towards an Enhanced State Citizens Relations in Nigeria”.
Olatosimi who took over from Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, described as worrying the rising waves of resource-based, ethnic, and sectarian conflict, criminality, banditry, and expanding violent extremism in the North Central and North-West zones of the country.
He added that this had made the regions increasingly insecure.
Participants acknowledged that multiple initiatives that sought to address the complex causes of violence, community and security responses to drivers and triggers were often piecemeal at best, and ineffectual at worst.
They said existing early warning and early response systems suffered from slow responses, poor coordination, top-down mandates that limit community ownership, and weak dispute resolution skills among responders.
According to the participants, little political and financial investment as well and the leadership structures exclude women and youth.
The General Assembly resolved to carry out orientations for new members with all WANEP Nigeria policies to be reviewed and signed by BOD.
The board of directors and trustees committed to ensuring a smooth transition of leadership from Mercy Corps to WANEP on the PARTNER Project funded by USAID.
Also, the former Board of Director Chair, Akiyode-Afolabi, commended the National Network Coordinator, WANEP Nigeria, Dr Bridget Osakwe, for her leadership and commitment to the organization.
“There have been remarkable improvements during this period of my tenure; giant progress was made as WANEP became the leading peacebuilding organisation in Nigeria.
“Today, we are discussing direct funding status from USAID and opened an office in Abuja. We can’t count our successes in conflict prevention and peacebuilding. However, more still needs to be done in terms of increasing the number of members, capacity building for members and resource mobilisation”
