A Non-Governmental Organisation, Partnership Against Violent Extremism Network in Nigeria, has attributed the spread of violent extremism in the North-West to years of failed governance, poverty, and unresolved historical grievances.
The Chairman of PAVE’s National Steering Committee, Jaye Gaskiya, stated this shortly after a one-day media engagement on promoting Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and stakeholders’ initiatives in the North-West, held in Kaduna on Thursday.
He said insecurity would remain unresolved unless governance failures at the local and state levels were decisively addressed.
The engagement, organised in collaboration with the Office of the National Security Adviser and ActionAid Nigeria, with funding support from the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund, brought together journalists and civil society organisations from across the region.
Its theme was “Amplifying voices for peace: Media partnerships in PCVE and resilience-building.”
According to Gaskiya, extremist leaders and groups exploit the frustrations of citizens, particularly young people who feel alienated from the system.
“At the base of this crisis, really, the reason why violent extremist groups and leaders gain support and are able to mobilise teeming masses of people into their ranks can essentially be traced back to the failure of governance and dysfunctional governance,” he said.
He identified poverty, inequality, a broken education system, and unresolved communal conflicts as key drivers of violent extremism in the region.
“You have rampant poverty, inequality, historical grievances between communities that have not been addressed, failure of the education system, and children being raised with no sense of the future. All that is needed is a charismatic leader to emerge and mobilise them,” he explained.
Gaskiya, a veteran civil society leader, said the media engagement was aimed at fostering stronger collaboration between journalists and civil society to shape public opinion, deepen understanding of insecurity, and co-create solutions that would build resilience in vulnerable communities.
“What we have done is to try to promote a relationship between the media and civil society, particularly on the question of addressing violent extremism. We want a symbiotic relationship where there is a deeper understanding, informed reporting, and co-creation of solutions,” he added.
He stressed that the fight against violent extremism must begin with strengthening governance at the grassroots level. He called for reforms that would restore autonomy to local governments, make council elections credible, and empower communities to take ownership of peacebuilding efforts.
“We are advocating for reforming and enabling local governance, strengthening local governments, and ensuring local government autonomy.
“All of us must become more interested in our state electoral laws and how elections into local government councils are held, so that credible persons can emerge in those authorities”, he said.
The PAVE boss also warned that political rivalries were undermining coordinated responses to insecurity, insisting that security must remain non-partisan.
“Security should be non-partisan. Regardless of political affiliation, governments and leaders must work together. We need synergy between national, state, and local action plans,” he said.
While acknowledging the efforts of security agencies, Gaskiya argued that military deployments alone cannot end violent extremism. He urged governments in the region to prioritise job creation, access to education, healthcare, and housing, describing them as essential to cutting off recruitment into extremist groups.
“If our approach is simply law enforcement – deploy the police, deploy the military – but people still cannot get jobs, cannot be educated, cannot access healthcare or decent housing, then we are not addressing the problem. We are simply wasting money on law enforcement,” he cautioned.
Highlighting the role of the press, he said responsible and informed reporting was crucial to managing the flow of information about insecurity and amplifying solutions rather than crises.
“We need better management of communication and the flow of knowledge around these issues. This requires effective partnerships, particularly between civil society and the media,” he added.
On her part, the National Coordinator of GCERF in Geneva, Yetunde Adegoke, said the organisation had been working in Nigeria since 2016 to strengthen resilience against extremist recruitment, particularly among women and youth.
She explained that GCERF had supported NGOs piloting interventions in North-Central and North-West states but was now scaling up those efforts in partnership with ONSA.
“Our aim is to support ONSA through PAVE and the Citizens’ Knowledge Hub to ensure innovative solutions are integrated into local and state action plans. Through this, we hope to achieve a coordinated regional and eventually national approach to preventing violent extremism”, Adegoke said.
According to her, the ongoing review of Nigeria’s Policy Framework and National Action Plan for preventing and countering violent extremism offers an opportunity for a more systematic and coordinated approach.
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