Assessing partnership on Prevention and Responding to Violence Against Children by Terrorist and Violent Extremist Groups

… UNODC Visits Perm. Sec. Women Affairs, Engr. Olufunso Adebiyi, FNSE.

Oru Leonard

The Permanent Secretary of Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Engr. Olufunso Adebiyi, FNSE has described the issues associated with the violence against children as an issue that threatens the continuous existence and future of the nation.

The Permanent Secretary stated that “In Nigeria right now, most of the present-day recruits of bandits and terrorists were yesterday’s abandoned, as those abandoned children are the adults of today; and if the children of today too are not well taken care of, they are the problems of tomorrow; so, facing these problems and solving them now, is not only prevention, it is curative and it is a solution to many other related problems. Pick the out-of-school children out of the streets, and if you really want to pick them out of the street, empower their mothers, when you do this, you are rehabilitating their mothers, who in turn take their children out of the streets and draw the children back to themselves; the normal virtue to be instilled into the children are restored.”

By this, Adebiyi stated that “You have provided a team of workforce for tomorrow’s Nigeria; you have also reduced the number of children available for recruitment by bandits and terrorists while technological development of a nation is also being enhanced while the GDP of the nation is being programmed for improvement in future because you have increased the workforce of the nation.”

Permanent Secretary Adebiyi was speaking when a high level meeting was taking place between the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna joined their local counterparts in Nigeria to visit to assess how Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Nigeria have been responding to violence against children by terrorist and violent extremist groups with a view to achieving a common position on the treatment such children have associated with the groups, and how Nigeria and the Ministry have been responding specially to the needs of rehabilitation of such children.

This assessment was programmed to be done within the context of STRIVE Juvenile Project which was launched by the Government of Nigeria and UNODC in 2021.

The STRIVE Juvenile Project has the objective of addressing the situation and treatment of children exploited and recruited by terrorist and violent extremist groups.

The visiting UNODC Team was led by Ms. Alexandra Martins, Head of the UNODC Global Programme to End Violence against Children and they were visiting from 9th to 13th of May, 2022.

The team is seeking to discuss the development of a coherent and comprehensive approach to the treatment of children associated with terrorists and violent extremist groups in line with national policies and priorities, including the policy framework and National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism.

The visiting UNODC Team is also interested in the nomination of a representative with technical expertise to join a working-level meeting to prepare for the STRIVE Juvenile Project second Steering Committee meeting which was to hold on 10th of May, 2022 at the UN House in Abuja.

The UNODC team’s policy stressed the whole of government and whole of society approach as being necessary for ensuring the appropriate treatment of children associated with terrorists and violent extremist groups with a view to promoting their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

The body also stressed that any child formerly associated with a with terrorists and violent extremist group who is in contact with the national authorities including with the justice system has the right to be treated according to specific safeguards, in accordance with applicable international law and in a way that prevents further victimization just as it endorses the UNODC Roadmap on the Treatment of Children Associated with terrorists and violent extremist groups for comprehensive guidance.

While holding the meeting with the UNODC Team in his Office on Monday, 9th of May, 2022, Engr. Adebiyi disclosed that his Ministry has a lot of coordinating mechanism put in place – working with Federal Ministry of Education; Federal Ministry of Health; Federal Ministry of Youth Development and all other agencies such as the National Bureau of Statistics and others like International Organizations.

Adebiyi also itemized causes of out-of-school children such as Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Sexual-Based Violence (SBV), disclosing further that his Ministry got a Centre in Kurudu (in Abuja) where women who are victims of GBV could have a one-stop-care where they are attended to.  He further disclosed that the distance of the centre made his Ministry to liaise with the Office of the President to secure a place nearer to the city centre to carry on care works for the victims of GBV, SBV and so on.

The P.S also disclosed other programmes and projects of the Ministry of r empowerment of women to lift hem above poverty and penury – the Nigeria For Women Project (NFWP) a structured project to save Nigerian women from exploitation of women and improving the “self-worth of the women and their children.” This, he said would prevent the children of such women from being hired by violent and extremist groups, “thus decreasing their vulnerability significantly”, he submitted.

The Ministry he added, provides psycho-social support for women victims of intimate partner abuse through its Situation Data Reporting Centre in the Ministry’s Headquarter.  Adebiyi discloses that the Ministry provides rights, privileges and opportunities education to women.

The Permanent Secretary requested the UNODC assistance in developing the capacity of the staff of Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to be able to square up to what they were hired to do.

(FMWA Media)