Omnia Institute for Contextual Leadership has been honoured during an extra-ordinary Peace and Security Summit, first of its kind, organized by Gombe State Government in order to find innovative ways of mitigating contemporary security challenges for sustainable economic development within Gombe State and democratizing the same in the northeast and the entire country.
Omnia Institute for Contextual Leadership's conferment of special award of recognition came in view of its consistency as a leading player in the promotion of all-out peace and peaceful coexistence and the deconstruction of violent extremism in Northeastern Nigeria.
During the peace and security summit, a constellation of security experts and intellectuals drawn from world acclaimed security outfits in Nigeria and beyond, teamed up to share ideas and world best practices on establishing, maintaining and expanding the frontiers of peaceful coexistence in a region hard-hit by insurgency, banditry, political thuggery and their cohorts.
Omnia Institute for Contextual Leadership's Reverend Doctor Abare Kallah was a lead paper presenter at the summit - where he shared core mission and vision of the institute and their seamless application to providing a formidable blueprint for long lasting peace and security within the corridor.
Dr. Kallah, who doubles as the representative of Omnia in Nigeria and the Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, Northeast region, harps on the activities that the institute has been actively involved in within the region, he says, "for me I feel for the past six years in Gombe State and the northeast, Omnia Institute for Contextual Leadership has been actively involved in the activities of training men and women of goodwill in interfaith leadership programmes bringing together people of goodwill to deconstruct violent extremism and create peace and harmony within the states, and I want to believe, the process of creating what we call interfaith peacemaker teams in various communities of Gombe State and the Northeast has really impacted our community and the Government is aware of some of these programmes".
Governor Inuwa Yahaya led Gombe State Government's recognition of Omnia is informed by his desire to forge strong partnerships with well meaning institutions and civil society groups towards solidifying Gombe State's position as the most peaceful state in Nigeria.
By this summit Gombe State is leaving nothing to chance despite being adjuged the safest state within the corridor by the Northeast Conference of State Directors of Security and the safest state in Nigeria by Statisense Data Tech, a leading data research firm - the peace and security summit aims to bolster the security architecture of thek state.
In the first quarter of 2022 Gombe State recorded one death and zero kidnappings from a total of 3,859 deaths and 1,827 kidnappings in Nigeria within the period as reported by Tracka data analysis.
Governor Inuwa Yahaya says, "although the present security in the country is generally precarious, Gombe State is relatively secure and peaceful".
In the area of partnerships and intelligence gathering, Governor Inuwa says, "we introduced new mechanisms for informal intelligence gathering and established a citizenship and leadership training center at Boltongo for the regular training of our youths on informal intelligence gathering and early warning indicators".
During the flagging off ceremony of the Gombe State Peace and Security Summit, a joint task force unit aimed at strengthening Gombe State's homeland security codenamed "Operation Hattara" was launched - equipped with operational vehicles and tools. Hattara is a word in Hausa language which means vigilance.
The 21st indigenous Inspector General of Police Alkali Baba Usman, who was special guest and keynote speaker at the summit, commended the initiative to galvanize community partnerships towards making Gombe safer. He says, "Gombe State is one of the states in the federation with the least incidents of violent crimes. However, the dynamic nature of crime makes it imperative that we continue to partner in evolving strategies that would place us above the criminal elements".
To put into perspective this special recognition of Omnia by Gombe, the safest state in Nigeria, it is worthy to note that Gombe State shares borders with all five other states in northeastern region ravaged by insurgency. Borno State, the birthplace and quintessential operational cockpit of the fundamental extremist sect, Boko Haram is just 168 miles apart and shares boundaries with Gombe. Yobe State, another hotbed of insurgency, is 136miles away from Gombe. Adamawa State is 156 miles, Taraba State is 256 miles and Bauchi State is 96 miles - these are states with varying degrees and vestiges of insurgency, with Gombe State remaining largely peaceful.
As Omnia Institute remains committed to the cause of promoting peaceful coexistence and de-radicalization of violent extremists in northeastern Nigeria, this special award of recognition by Gombe State Government seems to serve as a veritable feedback on the giant strides the institute is making in the promotion of peaceful coexistence amongst the various communities and ethnic nationalities in the region.
Posts
0 Comments