Security, Women and Peace - Hayi Mark Godwin Foundation

It is no gainsaying that promoting security should be a priority for every nation (security of lives and properties). Every life counts, male or female, young or old. Security, peace and development are words that intertwine. A country with a high level of security will experience a high level of peace as well as development.

Narayan et al 2000(as cited in GSDRC Applied knowledge services 2015) opines that safety, security, and justice are of paramount concerns to citizens and these include a stable income, consistent housing, clothing and food supplies as part of the predictability of daily life, protection from crime and psychological security.

Narayan et al 2000;DFID 2007(as cited in GSDRC Applied knowledge services 2015) states “women, men, girls and boys often have different safety, security and justice perceptions, experiences and needs that require targeted responses. For example, insecurity and injustice contribute to gender-based discrimination and social exclusion as a result of women’s inadequate property rights, unequal access to assets and discriminatory social norms and power structures”.

 When there is a bridge in security a nation creates room for violence, citizens tend to be less patriotic and it becomes a situation of all man for himself, one tends to forget the promise and loyalty to the nation. Eno .A. Fred at the HMGF Peace and Conflict Resolution Talk 2014 states “Our promise as a nation, what I call ‘The Nigerian Promise’, remains a distant dream for too many of our compatriots today. We are citizens, yet settlers in the same space we are supposed to protect and preserve as one. How we continue to function as indigenous citizens of Nigeria and yet cannot be indigenes within the same territorial space called  Nigeria because I moved from point A to point B is truly the biggest oxymoron of all times. Yet we claim to be building one Nigeria… When citizens work in harmony towards set objectives and the common ideals which they all consider noble and just, they inspire one another. In a nutshell, this is what true PATRIOTISM is all about.”