The Wife of the Governor of Kaduna State, Hajia Asia El-Rufai, has called for active involvement of women in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism in the country.
El-Rufai made the call at the opening of the 2nd Leadership in Counter Terrorism and Violent Extremism Course of the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), on Monday in Abuja.
NARC is running the four-day course in collaboration with Peace Building Development Consult (PBDC) for military, security agencies and Civil Society Organisations involved in counterterrorism and extremism in Nigeria.
She said that it was important to integrate women in the security apparatuses in the fight since they form the bulk of the victims.
El-Rufai also stated that women always had insights into the cause of violent extremism because of their closeness to the boys and men that actually get involved in extremism.
According to her, unless you involve a woman and get an insight on how her child has developed overtime, you may not be able to understand what pushes somebody to put on a bomb in his body, take his own life because he wants to send a message.
“Why would somebody do that? So, women need to be involved at all stages because, one, they are the ones that day in day out are involved with the young people whether they are male or female.
“They are the ones that share during their normal interactions with one another, they hear things and when they hear these things and they don’t have avenue to inform, they may not be able to prevent anything.
“We also must effectively involve women in trainings in early warning mechanism. The child must be taught from the basic of the critical reasoning and thinking.
“Education remains the only way we can stop them from getting involved in extremism. Religious teaching should be first taught at home properly in order to discourage children from adhering to bad teachings,” she said.
El-Rufai, who is the National Coordinator of Society Against Violent Extremism (SAVE), further advocated that the various CSOs involved the fight against terrorism and violent extremism must be thoroughly trained to understand the issues.
She said that some of the CSOs that are involved in countering extremism were not doing so because of their love for humanity but because of the money involved. NAN
According to her, a lot of people that have no idea about what violent extremism is, who are just there to make money were the ones that were mainstreamed into this fight without good knowledge.. (NAN)
