Boko Haram: Adamawa gov’t to support transitional justice for lasting peace
Story from Abdulaziz JAURO, Yola
Adamawa State Government has showcased readiness to support transitional justice in an effort to truncate the decade-long Boko Haram insurgency.
In a two-day training for media practitioners on transitional justice and reconciliation in the North East, the permanent secretary, Ministry of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Reintegration, and Humanitarian Services in Adamawa State, Aishatu Bibi Umar Rilwanu, noted that in order to achieve lasting peace, communities affected by Boko Haram insurgency must embrace transitional justice.
The workshop was sponsored by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the European Union (EU).
Rilwanu said transitional justice is a process of responding to massive human rights violations through judicial redress, political reforms, and other measures in order to prevent recurrence in communities that recorded massive human rights violations.
She appreciated the NHRC for bringing media professionals to Adamawa State with the purpose of addressing the aftermath of the Boko Haram insurgency, adding that such motive was in tandem with the state government’s drive to reintegrate the de-radicalised ex-combatants back into their communities for lasting peace to prevail.
However, she noted that the most important move is to ensure reconciliation between the victims and the perpetrators of the human rights abuses, adding that without such vital move, reintegration may be difficult to achieve.
Also, speaking during the workshop, the permanent secretary, Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General of Adamawa State, Samuel Yaumande, in his remarks, noted that transitional justice offers a window of opportunities for reconciliation.
He said the process has two components, viz; judicial and non-judicial, noting however that the NHRC has chosen the non-judicial component.
He noted that regardless of the option adopted, communities must own and drive the process for optimal results adding that the victims of such attacks must be carried along.
The executive secretary of NHRC, Tony Ojukwu, while speaking, thanked the Adamawa State government for its overwhelming support for the project aimed at bringing both the victim and the oppressor to a round table for amicable resolution and entrenchment of enduring peace.
Represented by Hilary Ogbonna, senior human rights adviser, NHRC, Ojukwu noted that the process of ensuring resolution of the Boko Haram imbroglio involved community mobilization, reconciliation, and reconstruction which transitional justice offers.
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He noted that looking at the huge technical, material and monetary requirements needed to carry out comprehensive judicial processes, the transitional judicial option becomes necessary due to the fact that it is a better way to fast-track reconciliation and reintegration, considering that over 350,000 people have been killed and more than two million people have been displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency.
Ogbonna urged the media to be proactive in disseminating healthy stories about the transitional justice which was instrumental to the peace recorded in South Africa after the end of the apartheid regime and the reconciliation achieved in Rwanda after the genocide.
He added that embracing the transitional justice will fast track the return of IDPs back to their ancestral land and will also ensure that ex-combatants are meted out the appropriate sanctions such as reparations and affirmative actions.
He further urged journalists to use their vantage positions to ensure that the project made its desired impact for lasting peace to prevail in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa States which are the three frontline states devastated by the Boko Haram insurgency.
