The Election Conflict Management Team on Tuesday the 11^th of January paid a courtesy visit to the Nigerian Bar Association. The group which is a partnership of 10 Institutions which are stakeholders in matters of National security was warmly received by the President of the NBA Joseph Bodunrin Daudu SAN. Select members from these Institutions make up the group, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution Secretariat, Office of the National Security Adviser, Office of the Inspector General of Police, Office of the Director General of State Services, Office of the Commandant Civil Defense, the Nigerian Bar Association, the National Orientation Agency, the Independent National Electoral Commission, Coalition for Democracy and Credible Election (CODECE) made up of (NUJ, WANGO, ICE, PSAN) and finally, the Ministry of Justice.

Joseph Boluwa Chairman of the Team informed the NBA President of the team’s mission to address any issues of conflict before and during the National elections. The team also called for the NBA’s assistance in establishing Election Conflict Information Outreach centers where election observers can come in and report any conflict they might have observed during the election. They observed that the NBA would be very helpful to them in this area because of the accessibility of the NBA branch offices and because of the spread of the NBA branches across the States of the Federation.

The NBA President Joseph Bodunrin Daudu in his response appreciated the team for the credible and well thought out initiative. He noted that the Government is usually slow in identifying organizations that play key roles in solving and addressing key issues that affect the country as a whole. He also stated that he did not think the process of conflict management should be for the duration of the election alone but should continue as long as there is Democracy.

Finally, he stressed the need for a deep level of advocacy, according to him, the people must be informed that they are as culpable as politicians in the issue of election conflicts  because of their low resistance to election conflicts, their participation sometimes in stealing ballot boxes and in most cases their outright decisions not to vote at all.