Nigerians and civil society groups have been urged to partner with government in the promotion of peace in the country.
Search for Common Ground (SFCG), an international Non-Government Organisation (NGO), gave advice in Abuja on Thursday.
Mr Shamil Idriss, the President of (SFCG) gave the advice at the SFCG 2016 Anniversary.
SFCG is an NGO working to address conflict, utilising consensus-based advocacy training, conflict resolution training, human rights monitoring and reporting.
Idriss said peace building and conflict resolution in any country should not be left for only government to handle.
“One of the mistakes I see across the globe most of the time is that people assume that government can help sustain peace all alone.
“The reality of today is that government does not have the capacity to deal with conflicts all alone and that is not peculiar to Nigeria, it is so everywhere.
“This is because of the way conflicts develop today. Often time, it is not just between states, it is between local communities, between states and militias.
“That is very difficult a thing for states to deal with’’, Idriss said.
He advised government to open up channels and avenues for citizens to meet and address their differences for peaceful co-existence.
Idriss, who said SFCG had been operating in Nigeria since 2006, expressed readiness to continue to partner with government in resolving crisis and building peace.
He identified one of the resent states where the NGO works to include Jos and the North Eastern states.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that one of the highlights of the dinner was the presentation of an award to Mr Chom Bagu, Senior Adviser to SFCG.
Bagu identified the missing link between the government, civil societies and citizens as one of the root causes of security challenges facing the country.
He said unless the three sectors worked together, it would be very difficult to sustain peace in any community.
“ISIS or Boko Haram are not something that government can solve by itself. These are the things that government need all of the society to work together to achieve.
Representative of the Managing Director of News Agency of Nigeria, Mr Julius Enehikhuere, Assistant Editor-in-Chief, said “there can be no progress without peace in the country.”
He enjoined journalists to always report areas that unite a people rather than promote divisive tendencies and sensational reporting. (NAN)