Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, Nigeria’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), says deaths in armed conflicts in the last two decades (2004 to 2024) have risen to 400,000 from 50,000.
Gambari, who was also the immediate past Chief of Staff to late President Muhammadu Buhari, made the disclosure in Calabar on Monday as a guest lecturer at the Naval Warfare Course 9.
Presenting a paper titled “Introduction to Conflict Resolution Mechanism,” he noted that there were currently 56 ongoing conflicts in the world.
According to him, the figure is the highest after the Second World War and the number of conflicts being resolved either by military force or peaceful agreements are dropping yearly.
“Global peace index indicates that global peace has deteriorated by 0.56 per cent with 97 countries deteriorating in peacefulness.”
He emphasised that good governance and inclusiveness as well as strong institutions would promote peace across the globe.
“I am convinced that lasting peace can only be brought in areas of conflict if there is good governance, and the nation and society team together to end threats to domestic peace.
“There is also a need for very strong institution like the military must be one, however in most cases, there can be no military solutions to most conflict, particularly intra-state conflict.
“So, it has to be the entire society and nations coming together to stop violent conflict, build peace which has to be on good governance and justice and inclusiveness,” he said.
Gambari advocated training for institutions such as the Nigerian Navy to be able to discharge this function of conflict resolution.
“The training is very important, education is important, communications are important,” he added.
On the strategy adopted by African leaders to effectively manage the role of spoilers while pursuing inclusive peace in Africa, Gambari said that the “sticks and carrots” method should be adopted.
“Yes, in the peace process, you always have spoilers, and as I said, some are homegrown. Some are externally induced. The best approach is really in my view sticks and carrots,” he further said.
Earlier in his remarks, the Commandant of the Naval War College, Rear Adm. Akinola Oludude said that the military was just a solution and not the entire arm to resolving conflicts.
He described the lecture by Gambari as “insightful” adding that it had equipped the course 9 participants to deploy lessons learned in the area of conflict resolution.
𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗧𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗔𝘀 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽!
