By Hosea Parah, Abuja

The Center for Democracy and Development (CDD) has organized a two day capacity building workshop for media practitioners, religious and traditional rulers in Adamawa State. It has resolve to entrench Transitional Justice (TJ).

In his opening remarks, the CDD director represented by Steve Amuda said the purpose of the capacity building workshop is to identify gaps so as to review the current communication strategy of CDD for optimal results.

He called on the participants to freely express their viewpoints as the session would be highly interactive so that the aim of organizing the workshop will be achieved.

CDD was established in the United Kingdom in 1997 and was registered in Nigeria in 1999.

The organization is committed to providing independent, nonpartisan approaches to capacity building, policy development, advocacy, and research on democratic governance, human rights, and security issues.

In his presentation on TJ works in the northeast and CDD strategic communication and the role of media and traditional and religious leaders, Professor Mala Mustapha, a research fellow with CDD said his organization has recorded sterling achievements in the northeast in resolving some of the contentious issues which arose from the Boko Haram insurgency.

He noted that CDD was the organization who brought the concept of transitional justice in Nigeria to bolster reconciliation, remediation and peace in the wake of the violent Boko Haram insurgency which destroyed lives and properties.

Mustapha said the introduction of the TJ has fast tracked reconciliation between the victims of the Boko Haram and the perpetrators of the mayhem through reparations.

He noted that the process of administering the TJ was achieved through the judicial and non judicial approaches noting that the hardened extremists who are believed to be the arrow heads of the insurgency usually pass through the judicial process and get appropriate punishment for the crimes they perpetrated against humanity.

Mustapha however noted that those who are conscripted into the insurgency by force usually go through the operation safe corridor where they are deradicalized, rehabilitated and reintroduced back into the communities.

According to Mustapha, some of the laudable achievements recorded by CDD in the northeast include building the capacity of Ulamas and clerics, building the capacities of 12 local women led CSOs on MDR and SGBV and building the capacities of community leaders on Sulhu Alherine.

He also said CDD is also organizing a monthly community peace dialogue and reconciliation meetings in 96 communities of Borno and Adamawa with key stakeholders in which no fewer than 2,880 stakeholders were involved.