By Brave Dickson
Search For Common Ground has successfully held its closeout review meeting for the first phase of its Deepening Peace In The Niger Delta Project.
The Close Out Review Meeting which took place in Port Harcourt also witnessed security agencies such as the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Civil Society Organizations, Media practitioners, Traditional rulers as well as community leaders among others in attendance.
Special thanks were pouring in to SFCG by stakeholders drawn from all walks of life who used the meeting to testify on how they were able to apply the knowledge acquired from the Deepening Peace In The Niger Delta Project in their respective domains and Peace was restored.
His Royal Highness, Chief Magnus Edooh who spoke on behalf of traditional institutions and narrated how the project has helped to sustain peace in his community also said: “We are living in peace in our community because of SFCG intervention programme.
“We were taught by SFCG on how to respect human dignity and I used it to wade into what would have turned into youth crisis in my community and peace was restored.
Speaking on behalf of security agencies, an Assistant Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, ACP Bassey Eweh admitted that SFCG has really impacted positive peacebuilding knowledge on the security outfits especially the police and used the medium to deeply thank SFCG.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, the state Chairman of SFCG Peace Architecture Dialogue and Deputy National Secretary of Pan Niger Delta Forum, Hon Ken Robinson thanked all participants in attendance, describing SFCG as an NGO born out of its respect for human dignity.
Hon Ken also reiterated PANDEF’s commitment to always work with SFCG in sustaining peace in the Niger Delta Region while advising everyone to keep promoting peace for the better of the society.
Delivering a speech on ‘the journey so far,’ the SFCG Head of Office for Niger Delta, Mr Borve Paago said: “The programme ‘Deepening Peace In The Niger Delta’ was designed to create this platform for peace at community, local, state and regional levels. It is a multi-stakeholders’ platform and we are actively working with every institution that is available and possible to work with.
“For instance, we are working with the three state governments of Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta through the offices of their secretary to state governments. We are working with the legislative arms as well as communities, civil society organizations, development partners, youths and women.
“The configuration of this project is done to enable collective participation and input. But on the other side, acceptance of this project and ownership are key to sustainability. Who should accept the project? Everybody! Because we find ourselves living in these communities.”
Shedding more insights on the essence of the closeout review meeting, the Rivers State Project Coordinator of SFCG, Mr Cosmos Dinee noted that, “the meeting was the climax of the first phase of the Deepening Peace In The Niger Delta intervention programme. We have been on this since January this year trying to build support and strengthen stakeholders’ cooperation across the Niger Delta Region.
“Today was the closeout review meeting for the first phase of the intervention and we trust that the second phase is going to commence in less than no time. We have taken time to recount the harvest and the gains of the intervention within this first eight months.
“From the testimonies across the board by participants, stakeholders, CSO partners, community leaders, you can see that we have actually impacted peace in the Niger Delta Region at the moment. There is no way you are going to say that there is relative peace in Niger Delta without mentioning the role played by Search For Common Ground. So, I believe we have successfully implemented our mandate for this project.”
