As the country prepares for the forthcoming general election 2023, the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) has called on the youth to shun violence and commit to building peace initiatives in communities across the country

Considering how young people are used as perpetrators of violence, especially during elections, Patience Obaulo, Head of Programs, WANEP Nigeria, said their momentum could be redirected positively hence the need for peace building and leadership training.

Obaulo, while speaking at a three-day training for young persons on leadership and peace building advocacy skills, reiterated how vital youths were in ensuring a peaceful election.

She said: “In Nigeria, there is a common notion that young persons are unable to carry out effective peace building activities in their local community but we want to debunk that notion, as through this training, we intend to have them acquire skills in leadership, acquire skills in building Peace Corps skills in advocacy, particularly are the two key resolutions, the UNSCR 1325 which calls for inclusion of women in peace building and the UNSCR 2250 which calls for the inclusion of young persons or young men and young women in issues of peace and security.

“We envision that these young peace builders will go to their local communities and carry out peace initiatives. As part of this programme on day three, you will be hearing from mentors who are young persons that we trained in the first national workshop for young persons share their experiences on what they've been doing with their skills at the local communities.”

She argued that young persons could effectively help build peace if they were educated and exposed to the right skills.

According to her, “the idea is for us to bring this young person to educate them and give them the knowledge without going back to your local communities and also build the skills of others in ensuring that they can use non-violent cottages in resolving key issues at the local level.

“We believe that when the minds of young people are trained to know how they can build the local communities, they will not go in the way of violence toward young persons. This workshop will encourage you to go down to your local communities and begin to let others know the need to have peaceful elections rather than recourse to violence in the course of the forthcoming elections,” she concluded.

Patricia Donli, Executive Director of the Gender Equality, Peace and Development Center, said young people should be used as instruments of peace since they have the potential of solving Nigeria’s problems.

According to her, through mentorship, the passion for peaceful co-existence and diversity management could be preached and inculcated into the youth and spread same across the country.

Donli said: “Nigeria is in chaos. We’re looking for young people, instead of being used to perpetrate violence, they rather choose to be agents of change and people who will be radical for peace building instead of violent extremism.

“We are looking forward to youths that will bring Nigeria to a better position. That is why we brought them here to be able to say no to terrorism, to be able to say no to violent extremism, to be able to mentor the other people that are there.”

In his remarks, Paul Nyulaku, Country Director of International Alert, Nigeria, challenged the youth to channel their energy and skills to creating policies that would help build peace and influence leaders to make conflict-sensitive policies.