I feel highly honored to be invited to share some of my thoughts on the above subject. Since the declaration of' State of Emergency' on three states of the North-East by the then Federal Authorities in 2013 or thereabout, the concept of the BAY states became pronounced. The BAY states is an acronym for Borno, Adamawa and Yobe. The three had similar experiences during the dark days of Boko Haram Insurgency resulting in the occupation of Territories within the three States. The degrees of effect and impact certainly differs among the three with Borno being the epicenter of the 

Insurgency, but by and large all the three states had a real bad time as a result of the Insurgency.

In addition to the three BAY states, virtually all other states within the North-East suffered severe consequences from the effects of the Insurgency. Either such states faced isolated attacks or groaned under the heavy burdens of catering for the scores of Internally Displaced Persons fleeing from the rampaging Insurgents.

And in all of these, men, Women and children suffered in equal measure both as victims and as survivors of the Insurgency. This presentation will try to look at the impact and effects of violent extremism from the point of view of the woman not just in the BAY states but the entire North-East and beyond.

Looking at the Insurgency and its impact on the people in the North-East region and beyond, one thing that was pretty obvious was that Nigeria and indeed the whole world started the process of engaging and countering the activities of Boko Haram wrongly. We must all reconsider our initial response to the Insurgency. At a point Nigerians including our own Government saw the Insurgency as a Borno affair. Even in Borno state it was seen as a Maiduguri affair. By the time we began to realize the danger it posed, we were all consumed by its devastating effects. In fact not only we in Nigeria, but even our neighbors in Cameroon, Chad and Niger did not see it as their problem at the initial stage.
 

Today, the devastating effect of Boko Haram has consumed the entire Lake Chad Basin region and the ripple effects particularly the Internally Displaced could be found in virtually every state of Nigeria and within the Countries of the Lake Chad Basin region. The millions of USD International Agencies are spending on managing the after effects, providing durable solutions and peace building processes would have been saved have we had swallowed our initial pretenses and collectively addressed the scourge of Insurgency at the time it reared its ugly head in the city of Maiduguri.
 

This pretense and self-denial of the obvious is still playing out in the way and manner we are addressing some of the violent conflicts within our region even today. We see economic struggles for land and fresh water resources as ethnic crisis. We allow members ruling elite appropriate huge lands they don't utilize or even need, we build unplanned structures in cities that hinder full utilization of land resources, yet when pressure becomes too hard on land resource we excuse it as ethnic clashes.

Meanwhile micro-nationalists are busy pretending to send away assumed strangers from land areas they never use for any purpose including agriculture.

Being an extremist does not necessarily make one violent. As a matter of fact, most of us are extremist by nature. Once you hold on to some view or belief which you believe to be true to the exclusion of all other truths, then you are an extremist. But that is the very basis of all religions. Yours is the true path, the way and the only way. Added to that is the other forms of extremism relating to Region, Ethnicity or even professional calling. For example it is an extremist position that Lawyers call themselves 'learned' in reference to others when actually we all went to the same school and learnt perhaps much more than them.

Irredentists and other forms of micro-Nationalists hold extreme views about their ethnic groups as if it was their choice to be born to certain families or to belong to certain ethnic nationalities. These are all manifestations of extremism. However, holding extremist views is not itself the danger, just as conflict is never a dangerous thing. People must hold opposing points of view, disagreements must exist among people otherwise the world would have been too boring to live in. What is dangerous is the imposition of one's extremist views on others by violent means. This is what Religious bigots do, and it is also what ethnic irredentist do. These are at the root of the Boko Haram Insurgency and the so called 'settler-indigenes' or the now freshly coined 'farmer-herder' conflicts. In terms of diversity, the North-East is the most diverse of all the geo-political zones of the country. We have highest number of ethnic nationalities and the most diverse economic base. We also have some of the most difficult terrains to traverse in the country. All of these present a rich recipe for contests that could lead to conflicts.

According to some scholars, there are two types of violence. The first is direct violence, which is usually expressed in physical, psychological and counter value violence against an opponent. The other is structural violence that exist when some groups, classes, gender or nationalities have more access to goods, resources and opportunities than other groups classes, gender and nationalities. And this unequal advantage is built into the very social, political and economic systems that govern societies, states and the nation.

The above situation almost defines the North-East region to the hilt. There is high level of poverty in the region, in Adamawa State for example where we designed our poverty map immediately this government took over, we had 11 out of our 21 Local Government Areas having a poverty index of over 72%. And incidentally we have better economic conditions than most states in the North-East. With four daily flights to Yola Airport, we are perhaps better off than most states in the North. All over the North-East Region there is high unemployment rates, unacceptable illiteracy levels, large number of out-of-school children and an extremely frightening level of abuse of Intoxicating substances. This is the recipe for the disaster we all faced and are still facing today.

Military action alone is not enough: Let me posit that I am in full support of the ongoing military action that resulted in degrading Boko Haram in the North-East. I am also in support of the Military actions that are aimed at restoring peace in restive areas. But I believe that the huge expenditures spent in military actions could be saved if we build a robust community based peace architecture that promotes dialogue, greater understanding, confidence building and an early-warning-early- response mechanism. We seem to pay more attention to crushing elements propagating violent extremist ideologies than harvesting the goodwill of persons who are non-violent. This is the sad reality of all our struggles in countering violent extremism in Nigeria.

Looking at all the programmes on ground as part of our post-insurgency strategy such as the Operation Safe Corridor seem to commit a lot of resources on the aggressors. We need to pay more attention to the plight of survivors who braved the odds rather than the aggressors who committed the atrocities. We need to harvest all the good around so that we can defeat the bad on the plain of ideological correctness. That is our collective responsibility and it starts with talking as we are doing here. Let there be dialogue and discussions. But most importantly, let there be actions too. Anyone at a decision making level even if at the smallest level in the community must take steps to promote good and abhor evil. We must reconstruct our narratives to promote good. Individuals, groups and communities who do well must be supported and celebrated. Those who promote bad must be sanctioned.

If I were not serving as a member of the Adamawa State Security Council, I would have challenged the topic of this dialogue. I would have asked a very pertinent question, do women really fuel violent extremism? Unfortunately, the answer is yes, they do. We have recently addressed a case of women who took some prepared food in a knack-sacks to some Boko Haram fighters in the outskirts of one of the communities in my state. We were told by security agents that it was a regular occurrence in some of the communities within the BAY states. For me personally, it was devastating because the image of women I have in relation to the insurgency is totally different. Women who serve as suicide bombers also present another example. Although studies have shown that a lot of these women were forced into the practice by extreme circumstances such as holding their children hostage with promise of death for all of them if they don't commit the atrocity, but a few that were captured said they agreed to do it as a result of their convictions that doing so was right and that it was a religious duty.

In spite of this report by security agents, the image of the woman of the North-East I have imbibed in my mind is that of a courageous, tough, resilient and determined survivor who had withered the toughest storm over to come out as a beacon of family values and protector of the future.
In most cases during the tough days of the Insurgency and even today women play roles that were hitherto preserved only for men ranging from being family bread winners to saving lives and in extreme cases as undertakers (which is unheard of in Muslim societies) We also have registered outright combatants who joined vigilantes and hunters to hunt down Boko Haram Insurgents. One woman in Adamawa rose to become the heroin of the struggle by becoming a top commander of the hunters in Adamawa State. In all of these, our women still carried on their biological duties of bearing children and caring for them.

Where communities had to run and relocate, it is usually the women that care to take the children along with them. Men often just escape without even giving notice. Unfortunately, women also suffered a lot more deprivations and dehumanizing experiences during violent conflicts including rape, torture and the trauma of seeing their loved ones killed in their presence.

One major setback inhibiting the full roles of women in countering Insurgency and other violent extremist tendencies within the North-East is EXCLUSION. Women are mostly excluded in most decision making processes. To enhance their role in countering violent extremism the following needs to be done:
1. Increase women's access to decision making processes at all level but particularly at community level.
2. Acknowledge their resilience and capacity to counter violent extremism
3. Engage them in early warning and early response mechanisms
4. Protect them from abuse such as rape or sex enslavement
5. Provide them skills and competences for enhanced economic well being
6.Support their health and nutritional needs as mothers and care givers

In this few paragraphs I tried to share my thoughts with you on a subject I am really very passionate about. I speak for women because they are the beacon of hope for the future of humanity.
I speak for women because they give so much to society but take very little leaving most for their men and children. I speak for women because I have a mother, a wife, a sister and a daughter.
All of them have played significant roles in my life and are still doing so.
Thank you and God bless you all.

Hon. Comm. Min. of Info and Strategy