Gaps and opportunities in preventing and countering violent extremism: empirical insights and reflections from participatory research in Northwest Nigeria

Violent extremism (VE) represents a serious challenge to public safety. Measures to prevent and counter it often crosscut multiple intervention areas and practices. However, enquiries into existing gaps and opportunities in preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) in regions experiencing multiple forms of violence have so far been preliminary, with scant context-specific evidence to inform better preventative strategies. Here, we assemble and analyse diverse data bothering on VE and P/CVE issues in northwest Nigeria generated through a combination of multiple methods: desk reviews, scoping visit, telephone interviews, young citizens panels, expert workshop and consensus conference. Our data cover issues around local support for violent extremist groups, people’s motivation for joining VE activities, spread and level of risks of recruitment and radicalisation, collaborative strengths of organisations working on P/CVE issues, and local prevention, intervention and response efforts. We find that ideological support for VE groups exists, mirroring the prevalence of shared religious beliefs, ethnic nationalism and political philosophy between affected communities and VE groups. Policies and practices empowering people to build alliances against radical ideologies from within specific ideological communities are severely lacking. These – in combination with VE root causes and motivations - heighten the risks of radicalisation and recruitment. Moreover, two-thirds of current P/CVE policies address VE as a security challenge as against confronting it as a social issue, demonstrating the primacy of militarised responses over ‘soft power’ measures. In addition, affected communities view defence and intelligence measures as exclusionary and less sensitive to human rights protection and local needs for citizens empowerment and community resilience. Our findings mirror gaps in P/CVE efforts in fragile settings, highlighting ways in which P/CVE opportunities around participation, prevention and protection can be maximised to close critical intervention gaps.