Lukman Abdulmalik
Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) with the support of the Open Society Foundation (OSF-Africa) has advocated for strong synergy among security agencies on early warning, and early response mechanisms to enhance the protection of civilians in Nigeria.
The Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani, represented by the Program Manager, Jimoh Abubakar, called during a press conference on Wednesday at Porto Golf Hotel, Bompai in Kano.
According to Rafsanjani, while the number of violent conflicts in the world has been on the increase since the 2000s, this has raised questions on how violence and its escalation can be prevented in international affairs.
“Conflict prevention mechanisms exist and Early Warning and Response Systems (EWRS) are prominent avenues to avert socio-political crisis.
“Prevention of Crisis or Disasters should be initiated at the earliest possible stage of a crisis or natural disaster cycle to be most effective.
“Early warning and early response systems are vital tools when they initiate timely responses to keep the populace safe.
“Despite the existing wealth of information and analysis on the issues of natural disaster, climate change, and conflict, there is a need to make early warning and conflict prevention operational at multiple levels of Nigeria’s federal structure.”
He added that the best practices in early warning and early action lead to anticipatory action that enables decision-makers to take informed steps to protect people before disaster strikes.
“To be effective, early warning systems must involve meaningful engagement with communities at-risk and decision makers including other stakeholders, disaster relief and security agencies in the country and internationally.”
He said: “Poor synergy and inter-agency rivalry among response institutions competing for scarce resources hamper adequate coordination and response to warning signals.
“Over-sensationalized media reportage with profit-oriented tendency and deliberate information misrepresentation contribute to conflict escalation and social instability at all levels.
“Advent of social media with growing misinformation and unverifiable facts, especially on social media platforms pose significant threats to proactive effort at building synergy and cooperation between community and response institutions.
However, CISLAC recommended the “Formation of a well-informed and formidable community network with a coordinating body to complement the intelligence gathering process for accurate information provision on early warning signals.
“Institutionalizing adequate data protection systems backed by modern technology on information gathering to ensure information secrecy on early warning signals.
“Embracing well-informed information gathering, factual presentation, and publication as well as high-level professionalism in early warning reporting for timely response and purposeful development.
“Well-informed journalism through an in-depth understanding of the existing laws and government policies as well as internationally-aligned best practices and standards.”
CISLAC had in previous engagements with state and non-state actors, observed the criticality of initiating early warning response systems, especially at community levels as proactive measures for conflict prevention.
