Emergence of Counternarrative Peace Media in the Northeast of Nigeria: Exploratory Review on Their Impacts and Prospects

Introduction

Since the end of the cold war in the early 1990s, the world has become unpredictable in terms of conflict and search for peace. It has become a major part of the global discourse how violent conflicts are increasing daily leading to a violent breach of the peace in society, the abuse of human rights, threat to traditional cultures and obliteration of boundaries. Unfortunately, terrorism and other forms of violent conflict have taken centre-stage in the global arena (Ngige, Badekale & HammanJoda, 2016). Many countries especially the poor and developing ones such as Nigeria are suffering from various forms of conflicts and insecurity, a situation that is of great concern to the regional and global community even though conflicts, generally, are inevitable especially in multicultural societies such as Nigeria (Ibrahim & Hassan, 2017; Ibrahim & Nguru, 2020; Ibrahim & Nguru, 2020; Ngige et al., 2016).

Ever since independence, in 1960, Nigeria has suffered devastatingly from a myriad of conflicts – from the coup in 1967 through to the Boko Haram insurgency which is currently ravaging the Northeast of the country – that have threatened not only the peace in society but also the existence of one Nigerian nation. Hence, the quest for a sustainable and lasting solution to the conflict is an issue of enormous national concern. This necessitated the making of a series of coordinated efforts at the individual, group, national and even international levels to maintain the peace and secure livelihoods and continuity of traditions and culture. Furthermore, this challenge speaks volume why Nigeria must strive to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) especially SGD 16, which focuses on peacebuilding and sustainability of culture. Nigeria may be a prosperous nation in terms of human and natural resources but over the last two decades, it has lacked the peace to harness those resources for nation-building.

The quest for a solution to the conflict is an issue of national concern. Nowadays, concerted efforts are being made at individual and group levels to sustain peace. The dominant paradigm adopted in the dousing the menace of conflicts in Nigeria has been the use of gun and militarisation. However, this approach has been widely criticised as full of human rights abuse and incapable of restoring lasting peace (Abdulazeez, 2016; Ibrahim, 2021; Ibrahim & Hassan, 2017). The academic community has advocated for a multi-faceted approach to ending the conflict, suggesting a research evidence-based and alternative narrative (alternative media) approaches.

Evidence has shown that violent extremists have made effective use of the media (directly or indirectly) especially the cyberspace to advance their aims, “whether through engagement, propaganda, radicalisation or recruitment”. This study is interested in understanding what can be done, and how to counter their extremist propaganda, which can incite or glamorise the use of violence. Much of the emphasis to date has been placed on the militarisation of the counter-violent extremism campaigns. While governments need to secure the nation and be seen to be doing so, there are severe limitations on the effectiveness of this response, for example, unspeakable number of casualties, wanton abuse of human rights and the limited capacity of the military (Langer, Kaufhold, & Runft, 2019).