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• By: IC PAD

In February 2023, the build up to the Nigeria’s General Elections, the Islamic Centre for Peace Building, Research and Development (IC-PAD) identified Ulema, religious clerics as critical stakeholders that influences peaceful election.

For this, the Centre  convened a One-Day Roundtable discussion/Townhall on The Conribution of Ulama in peaceful electioneering in Kaduna and Kano States, Northwest Nigeria, respectively.

The two states have had histories of violent elections from the baseline conducted by the Centre.

While Kano suffers youth crimes and political thuggery, Kaduna state in addition to these, has the presence of Ansaru Jihadists and the prevailance of significant number of non-muslims.

The Ulama— Islamic scholara— had previously provided coordinated and responsive role in mitigating the manipulation of youth for political violence and election sabotage. This is why IC-PAD planned to leverage on them to gather community and youth to influence peaceful general election in Nigeria.

The townhall did not only provide institutional framework for better electioneering using religious authority, it presented an opportunity for intra-faith interaction between members of different sects in a highly biased environment such as Kano and Kaduna.

Abdussamad Ahmad Yusuf, the Project officer of the Centre, interacting with newsmen in Kano and Kaduna, disclosed that; IC-PAD as a faith-based non-profit research, dialogue and training  organisation, will continue to impact the development ecosystem in northern Nigeria through implementation of projects, leading advocacy, research and trainings, engaging youths, Islamic scholars and other critical stakeholders for peacebuilding efforts.