We’ll soon overcome Boko Haram – Anyaoku, Gambari

 Former Common-wealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Nigeria’s former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, yesterday, said Nigeria will soon overcome her prime security challenge, the Boko Haram insurgency.
In separate chats in Lagos after launching a book, Consolidation of Peace in Africa: The Role of the United Nations Peace Building Commission, authored by Ambassador Eloho Otobo, the elder statesmen said President Muhammadu Buhari’s effort in combating the insurgency and insecurity will soon yield dividends.
While Anyaoku chaired the book launch, Gambari delivered the keynote speech. The book was launched by the Pan African Institute for Global Affairs and Strategy, PAIGAS, in partnership with The Diplomat Newspaper.
Anyaoku said: “We have been having relationships (with other countries) but we have never had relationships as concretized as they are beginning to be now.
“Starting with the formal arrangement that we have succeeded in making with our immediate neighbours, the joint force combating Boko Haram did not exist before.”
Gambari, in his speech, urged Nigeria to start preparing for post-insurgency peace building efforts in the North-East zone.
His words: “Drawing on my experience in the services of the UN in various capacities, I can assert with a high degree of confidence that peace building has political and social-economic dimensions.
“Although the crisis of the Niger Delta has receded, there is an unfinished peace building agenda that ranges from repair of environmental degradation to economic revitalization of many of the communities to provide assured means of livelihood for the people.”
“At its core, peace building is a process through which societies and individuals affected by conflict are enabled or assisted to re-start their means of livelihood, promote reconciliation, and revive the economic, political and social institutions that allow their societies to function normally.
“An effective peace building strategy is one that is not only holistic, but carefully targeted in addressing structural causes of conflict and fragility.”
“Before it was possible for Boko Haram to strike in Nigeria and take refuge in Cameroon, Chad or even in Niger. That is no longer happening because the forces of the four countries are now joined in tackling the insurgency.”
In his review, Mr. Oseloka Obaze described the book as a very informative and important book that examines the genesis, evolution, prospects and challenges of the UN Peace building Commission and delves broadly into different facets of the conceptualization, history, theory and practice of peace building, and particularly, the past, present and future role and challenges of the commission. Obaze noted that the publication of the book coincides with the 70th anniversary of the United Nations and therefore, will add fillip to various anniversary assessments of the organization and its work.
Dignitaries at the event included Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) Director-General, Professor Bola A. Akinterinwa; Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Hon. Tam Brisibe; Mr. Adjarho Oyibo, Mr. Oma Djebah, chairman, The Diplomat Newspapers among others.

By Clifford Ndujihe & Prisca Sam-Duru