Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe
The United Nations (UN) has lauded Nigeria’s De-radicalisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DRR) programme for repentant former Boko Haram (BH) members in the North-East. Mr Edward Kallon, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, gave the commendation during a visit to the DRR camp in Mallam-Sidi Community in Kwami Local Government Area (LGA) of Gombe State.
Kallon stated that the UN would be planning and focusing on the quality improvement of the programme, which he said had followed the best global practice in de-radicalising and rehabilitating ex-insurgents.
‘Whatever new initiative the UN is going to be bringing on board is going to be very small. We are only going to focus on quality improvement. For example, I saw some of the clients doing some shoes, they can do with quality improvement on that to access better markets. These are small, small things that can be fixed,’ Mr Kallon said.
He stated that the DRR programme was working toward bringing peace to the country and helping ex-combatants to acquire skills to become better citizens contributing to the growth of the society.
‘The DRR programme is a critical peace building initiative that will contribute immensely to ensuring that ex-members of Boko Haram are reintegrated into society.’
He added that ‘the programme is a co-operation between the government, military and other Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) as we were briefed. These guys have brought on board the best global practices, I commend their effort to ensuring that these ex-combatants are de-radicalised, rehabilitated and reintegrated back to the society to make meaningful contributions to their communities.’
The UN representative said that the fight against insurgency in the country had lasted 11 years with casualties and millions of persons displaced from their homes. He, however, said the DRR program presents an opportunity to ensure that peace is restored to the Northeast in the long run when the fight against the insurgency would have been defeated.
Speaking earlier, Maj-Gen Bamidele Shafa, the Coordinator of Operation Safe Corridor (OSC), said the DRR programme had achieved a lot of successes in its bid to restore peace in Nigeria’s North-East region.
According to him, the success of the DRR programme is attracting lots of attention from outside the country as representatives of other African States had visited the camp to adopt Nigeria’s model of DRR. He commended the Federal Government’s efforts in ensuring that peace is restored to the North-Eeast while rehabilitating ex-insurgents as a tool to discourage militancy in the region.