Economic inequality, nepotism fuel conflict, poverty in Northeast
By Njadvara Musa, Maiduguri
The Unified Members for Women Advancement (UMWA) has declared that economic inequality and nepotism fuel poverty and conflict in the Northeast region.
The about 14-year conflict has killed 40, 000 people with the loss of $9.6 billion (N4.2 trillion) property in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
Unveiling the factors of violence, yesterday (Thursday), in Maiduguri, UMWA’s Executive Director, Dr. Hassan Ibrahim, disclosed: “The stakeholders’ dialogue on gendered-context analysis on conflict and bad governance have identified inequality and nepotism in fueling violence and instability in the country.”
Read Also: Buni Woos Investors With An Enabling Environment, Auto Care Centre
According to her, there is the need to give constitutional role to the traditional institution to improve governance and economic development at the grassroots.
She maintained that the platform afforded the participants the opportunity to discuss the issue of gender in the context of conflict, weak governance and poverty.
Her words: “Today’s stakeholders’ meeting also identified the mitigation strategies, personalities and agencies saddled with the responsibility of addressing poverty and weak governance at the grassroots.
“The lack of autonomous power of traditional rulers; have also hindered them to take decisive action on most to the challenges facing the society.”
She said that the organisation will also convene a women-led policy engagement with the aim of strengthening partnership with stakeholders.
According to her, the women convention could proffer a sustainable solution to the problems facing the people in the region.
Some of the participants at the Stakeholders’ dialogue, included the Borno State Assistant Commander, National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Abdullahi Sardauna and Dr. Rahila Jibrin, Department of Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID).
Sardauna and Dr. Rahila Jibrin decried the rising number of women engaged in the abuse of drugs and the consumption of other illicit drugs.
They also advocated for a holistic approach on the prevention of substance abuse in various communities of state.
