Articulating the Islamic Model of Security and Peacebuilding Mechanisms Amid a Deteriorating Security Climate in Northwest Nigeria

Abstract

Islamic abstraction of peacebuilding can not be sequestrated from the total experiences within the broader normative developments and comprehensive framework that galvanized the international action that has reimagined the security agenda to focus on human security over the past decades. At the instance of the deterioration of the security climate owing to the protracted menace of armed banditry and other associated crimes in Northwest Nigeria, the UN among other international actors, introduced an integrated peacebuilding approach to deal with security and development issues. This led to the operationalization of peacebuilding in the region. Peacebuilding has been an uphill struggle in the Northwest. Moments of reconciliatory openings have so far ended with a relapse to violent conflict; the amnesty programs in both Zamfara and Katsina states are a clear pointer to this peril. Studies have explained that the failure of both the preventive mechanisms to violent conflicts and the post-conflict reconstruction (peacebuilding structures), is largely due to reasons associated with the lack of an articulate and integrated engagement culture. One that will accommodate the needs of the operating environment taking into cognizance the religion, culture, and history of the social setting. The paper uses the semi-structured interview involving thirty participants from three states in the region; Katsina, Sokoto, and Zamfara as instrument for data collection. Via the positivists’ research paradigm, the paper analyzes the responses from the research participants (respondents) about the region’s peacebuilding predicaments and thus indicates the foundational- historical, socio-political, and security contexts that made violent conflict resilient. Simply put, the paper amplifies the failure of learning to learn from history. The respondents singled out the distortion of rural sociology as the major trigger. To a tune of almost 100%, the rural economy in the Northwest is agriculture-dependent. Thus, the adage; “noma na duke tshohon ciniki, kowa yazo duniya kai ya tarar”. To forestall the escalation of insecurity, we must begin to search for pathways to restore the pristine rural sociology of the region which was put together by the Sokoto jihad leaders. Nonetheless, the respondents have identified the pathways within the peacebuilding structures and the relative hindrances within them. These include; half-hearted peacebuilding structures and the (dis)articulated Islamic peacebuilding mechanisms. To overcome this drawback, the paper recommends the re-articulation of the Islamic model and its integration into the existing peacebuilding framework.