2019: ECOWAS holds 3-day peace workshop for stakeholders in South-South

AHEAD of the 2019 general elections, the Directorate of Political Affairs (DPA) of the ECOWAS Commission, in partnership with the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) Abuja, Nigeria, is holding a dialogue and Mediation training workshop for stakeholders and community peace actors.

The workshop billed for Benin City, the Edo State capital, from October 9-11, 2018, will have participants drafted from various sectors of the South-South region.

Officials from the Capacity Building, Mediation Facilitation Division, Directorate of Political Affairs
ECOWAS Commission, Abuja,
Ebenezer Asiedu, and Brown Odigie, in a statement made available to TribuneOnline in Warri, Delta State, said
the training programme was part of ECOWAS’ efforts to engage key stakeholders in Nigeria towards the conduct of peaceful and violence-free general elections in 2019.

They added that the training workshop aims to enhance the dialogue and mediation competencies of participants from the six states of the South-South.

The duo further disclosed that the participants would be trained on how to use dialogue and mediation as tools to prevent and mitigate potential conflicts/disputes around the 2019 electoral processes, so as to contribute to the overall peace and stability of the country.

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The participants for the three-day workshop will be selected by the IPCR, the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), Nigeria, from the media, traditional institutions, faith-based and civil society organizations, youth and women groups, physically-challenged and governmental platforms.

The specific goals of the engagements will include creating the opportunity for participants to appreciate the ECOWAS’s normative principles and frameworks for transparent and peaceful elections.

The outcomes, Dr Odigie and Asiedu noted, will be channelled towards “sustaining and enhancing ECOWAS’ strategic engagement with the political process in Nigeria; and also as an indication of our commitment and preference towards using dialogue and mediation in resolving electoral disputes and conflicts.”

Other goals of the workshops will include: providing a platform for participants to brainstorm and identify contending issues around the forthcoming elections and the possible role that they can play in mitigating potential electoral violence before, during and after the elections.

The ECOWAS officials, who disclosed that a similar worship is ongoing in Jos, the Plateau State capital, further noted that the South-South three-day training workshop will hold at the Constantia Hotel, 24/26 Airport Road, Benin City, Edo State,

It will be recalled that before recent elections, the commission has organised similar workshops in other member states, including Liberia in 2017, Sierra Leone and Mali in 2018, and ahead of the crucial legislative polls in Guinea Bissau.