The Federal Government is resolute in dismantling the
structural conditions that make violent extremism to thrive in the country, so
says the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, reports ITRealms.
He gave this outline in Abuja on Tuesday at the public
presentation of the 'Policy Framework and National Action Plan for Preventing
and Countering Violent Extremism', identified such structural conditions to
include unemployment, poverty, lack of education, corruption, and other
social-economic factors.
According to him, the Federal Government has embarked on
developmental programmes as part of efforts to dismantle the conditions that
feed into violent extremism.
"For example, the Anchors Borrowers programme has
created over 6.3 million jobs for farmers through rice farming. Equally
significant, the Federal government has served no fewer than 246.4 million
meals to Primary school pupils across 20 States under the National Home Grown
School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) to encourage children enrolment in schools.
''According to a widely reported recent survey, no fewer than
10.27 million children have been enrolled in public primary schools in the
North West and North Central Zones of the country in the last one year,
representing an increase of 20% in some of the states. This was attributed
largely to the school feeding programme. Development programmes like the school
feeding scheme are at the heart of our efforts to prevent violent extremism.,''
Alhaji Mohammed said.
He also said the N-Power programme of the Federal Government
has engaged and deployed over 200,000 young Nigerian to public primary schools,
primary healthcare centre, and in agriculture development project centres
across local government areas in the country, adding, 'This is with a view to helping build community resilience
against violent extremist group. That number is set to increase by 300,000 this
year."
The Minister said the government is also taking a bold step
to address the issue of recharging the Lake Chad Basin, which has shrunk by 90%
between 1963 and now, thereby impacting negatively on the livelihood of the
people that depended on it for farming activities.
He said that as part of its soft approach in tackling
security challenges, the administration is equally engaging in dialogue with
different key stakeholders in order to find possible and lasting solutions to
the issue of herder-farmer conflicts, which is one of the security challenges
confronting the nation.
Alhaji Mohammed said the Federal Ministry of Information and
Culture is committed to developing narratives and communication strategies that
will completely dismantle and neutralize Boko Haram ideology and messages.
"We did that when we launched the national
sensitization campaign against insecurity in December 2015. I am sure many of
you would have heard the slogan, 'if you see something, say something. We
intend to take that campaign further'.
"As you are very much aware, extremist groups thrive on
two major things: One is to get their ideologies and messages out to the
public, which today has been facilitated by the democratisation of the
cyberspace, for the purpose of recruitment and radicalization. The second is
publicity, which is the oxygen that they live on," he said.
While applauding the critical role the media is playing the
fight against terrorism, the Minister encouraged the media to sustain the
momentum and deny extremist groups the oxygen of publicity which they badly
crave.
Alhaji Mohammed hailed the leadership and political will
demonstrated by President Muhammadu Buhari, which has served as a morale
booster for the military to decimate Boko Haram and put the terror group on the
run.
He said the Sambisa Forest, which used to be the fortress of
Boko Haram, has become too hot for the terror group, which is now escaping to
the neighbouring communities.
Chuks Egbune/GEE
Pix:(L-R) The National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Mohammed Monguno (rtd); Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and representative of Chief of Defence Staff, Maj.-Gen. A Mohammed at the Public Presentation of Policy Framework and National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism in Abuja.
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