The applicability of UNSC resolution 2250 in West Africa

INSTABILITY, violence and unrest are terms that have gradually taken a linguistic place in the media’s description of the political scene in West Africa. As a consequence, peace and security has become a hot topic in the African sub-region, with youths bearing the brunt of a significant absence of it. In Mali, for example, as in most countries in Africa, young people represent more than 60 per cent of the population. Half of them live in precarious conditions, lacking opportunities to ensure their socio-economic integration. The situation is further exacerbated by the political crisis that the country faces which makes young people not only preys of extremist groups in search of new recruits but also, victims of abuses by state security forces, armed Islamic groups and communal violence. The narrative issimilar in chad, Following the death of the PresidentIdris Deby. All the political consultations and dialogues that led to the installation of a transitional government was done without significant involvement of youth which constitute a large population of the country. The instalment of the transitional government was itself largely militarily orchestrated and did notrepresent an inclusive and diverse representation of political factions, much more youths but this brings the same issues to the fore – the absence of fair, equitable and inclusive engagement in the peace and political process in Africa.

In Guinea as in Chad, a constitutional review was proposed and a referendum organized with aconcocted plan to retroactively extend the term of office to allow the incumbent president hold on to power till 2033 in Chad and in Guinea, to afford the Guinean President a third term. In Nigeria, a similar outburst from youths occurred in 2021 from a movement that gained momentum online. Nigerian youths were calling for an end to police brutality, violation of human rights, profiling of young people, more inclusion and police reforms. All of these outbursts and protests across various countries in the same region can by no means be mere coincidence. It stems from the particular knowledge and experience of violence and injustice that young people go through which go beyond the traditional war setting including different forms of exclusion and discrimination and political alienation. Identical “youthful” outbursts led to the Amman declaration in 2015, where youths themselves demanded a seat at the table of peacebuilding and expressed their commitment to achieving a peaceful global society. The adoption of the Amman Youth declaration marked a turning point in recognizing young people’s role for peace building – a stride, the United Nations Security Council acted on, by passing resolution 2250 which signalled recognition, on the part of Member States, that inclusion of youth views, concerns and participation is essential to sustaining peace and achieving fair and lasting change. The resolution urged Member States to give youth a greater role in decision-making at the local, national, regional and international levels and consider setting up mechanisms that would enable young people to participate meaningfully in peace processes.

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This article aims to recommend measures that West African states can adopt to ramp up the implementation of UNSC 2250, seeing that not much has been achieved in past years. The bulk of efforts which exist, have been undertaken by NGO’s, inter-governmental organizations, private persons and foreign partners. This is exemplified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo wherethe National Partnership of Children and Youth in Peacebuilding (NPCYP), uses arts to promote peace and coexistence. In South Sudan, where young people use sports to build peace and mutual trust among warring tribes engaged in cattle rustling. In Mali, where the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission (MINUSMA) strengthens the capacity of youth civil society organizations and have inaugurated Peace Ambassadors who are engaged in strengthening local governance, civic responsibility and peacebuilding. All of this reinforces the premise that governments take the back seat in ensuring youth involvement in political processes while other organizations take the fore.I will go on to recommend a list of options which governments may adopt to position youths at the fore-front of enhancing peace and security in their territories. This can be done by: (a) Offering governmental support, recognition and partnership to organisations which are already undertaking youth-centered peace building initiatives:

This way, the government becomes involved in the work of these organizations while fostering more implementation and successful outputs from them owing to the governmental affiliation. (b) Including peace education in the curriculum of schools: Between 2013 and 2017, more than 3,500 children aged 13-17were recruited by armed militant groups. This makes the need to forestall the recruitment and violation ofr children’s right more pertinent. Although many schools in West Africa have civic education and social studies in their educational curriculum, more attention needs to be given to peace, security and tolerance-related topics. This way young children and youth can be imbued with the resilience to resist doctrinal andideologicalconvincing to join terrorist groups. (c) Islamiyya education: an effective way of reaching more children will be to do so through “Islamiyya” which is place in many Islamic provinces.“Islamiyya” is a method of grooming young children in the teaching of the Quran and the dictates of Islam. Strategic partnerships with the heads of Quaranic schools will result in the inclusion of peace studies in the curriculum, which will serve to expound the true stance of Islam which is a religion of peace and to grow the resilience of children against armed groups.

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(d) Creating spaces for the youth to engage in political processes: Governments must make sustained commitments to rebuild young people’s trust and confidence in government, seeing thatmany youths feel excluded from political processes. Youth Peace Building Institutions can for example be established with itbeing contextualized to the age group of young people which will serve as a think-tank organization for young peacebuilders with due consideration given to their output at the highest levels of power. Caution must however be taken to ensure that the participation that is offered to youths is not lip-serviced, one-off, tokenistic or manipulative.

(e) Modifying and leveraging on the youth Volunteer Corp (NYSC)as an asset for peace building: Many countries –(Liberia, Afghanistan and South Sudan) utilize youth volunteer corps to increase youth participation in peace building and governance processes. This is a resource that the Nigerian government has at its disposal. What is thus required is to modify and structure the NYSC to include more peace-focused programmes. The mentioned countries have leveraged their youth volunteer corps by executing partnerships with international organizations tobuild the capacity of youth in the field of peace building and conflict resolution. Nigeria and other west African states can take a cue from this. All of the above recommendations will serve to implement the provisions of Article 17 of the African Youth Charter(which Nigeria and 39 other African states have ratified)which re-emphasizes the role of governmentsinpromotingthe capacity of young people in facilitating peace and non-violence.