EU, SFCG urge Niger Delta stakeholders to tackle drug abuse, conflicts

Determined to curb issues of drug abuse and other forms of criminality among youths in the Niger Delta region, a European Union-funded organisation, Search for Common Ground (SFCG), has called for collaboration between community leaders and key stakeholders in the region.

The Director of Programmes, Search for Common Ground, Gift Omoniwa, said stakeholders, including traditional rulers, state governments, security agencies, the media, and community and youth leaders, are needed in the peacebuilding and conflict resolution project in the region.

The stakeholders, who attended a one-day regional multi-stakeholder consultative engagement in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, were charged to adopt SFCG’s strategy of using a community-centered approach to transforming criminality and violence in the region.

According to Omoniwa, collaboration among key stakeholders is essential to achieving sustainable peace and security in Rivers State and the region.

She said, “While we are sharing updates on what we are doing and the impact that the project is making, we are also looking out for potential collaborations with different institutions and agencies.”

She expressed delight at the interest shown by stakeholders in collaborating to achieve the set objectives.

“For the project to be sustained, we are deploying a community-centered approach that empowers the community to lead these processes on their own, with or without Search for Common Ground. And we are happy that the communities are excited and are also taking up these initiatives.

“And on our end at SEARCH, we will continue to engage with donors and other philanthropic organisations to see that we mobilize more funding. We hope to expand and continue with what we are doing in the Niger Delta,” she said.

National Conflict and Policy Analyst for SEARCH, Andrew Nkemneme, while presenting the organisation’s Conflict Snapshot, a research work carried out in Rivers State between April and December 2024, identified drug abuse as an emerging threat and a major driver of other conflicts and criminality in Rivers and other parts of the region.

Nkemneme said the snapshot monitored some conflicts, such as cultism, militancy, economic, communal, and political conflicts.

He said, “Drug abuse has become a major issue that is driving other conflicts, such as militancy, cultism, kidnapping, hardship, among other vices in Rivers State and other parts of the Niger Delta. Today, we have come to redesign our project with the help of stakeholders who are members of the communities to achieve our goals.”

To reduce the menace, he recommended vocational training, conflict sensitivity training, strong collaboration with security agencies, as well as monitoring and evaluation of conflict trends, among others.

Speaking at the event, the Secretary of Administration of the Criminal Justice Monitoring Council, Mrs. Ilanye Brown; Prof. Ifeanacho Martins of the Centre for Peace and Security Studies at the University of Port Harcourt; and the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the Rivers State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Godspower Lekia Anya, lauded Search for Common Ground and its partners—Stakeholders Democracy Network (SDN), Foundation for Partnership Initiative in the Niger Delta (PIND), and AAPW—for fostering unity and peaceful coexistence among communities in Rivers and other Niger Delta states.

The project is being implemented in 66 communities across 33 local government areas in Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers States, with the goal of fostering inclusive community security approaches to address systematic drivers of violence and all forms of crime in the three states.