Anambra: Ozumba drills participants on early response system as Kukah Centre canvasses peaceful election

By Chike Mabene

The imperative of implementating Early Warning-Early Response (EWER)System as precursor to successful gubernatorial election in Anambra State was the emphasis during a 4-Day Training Workshop organized by The Kukah Centre, Secretariat of the National Peace Committee from 23rd -26th September 2025 at Golden Tulip, Crown Prince Hotel Awka.

Presentating a paper on Building Community Resilience for Gubernatorial Elections: A Guide to Strenghtening Early Warning-Early Response (EWER) System in Anambra State, Emeka Ozumba, a partner in Delight Resource Team, facilitators of the Workshop, on behalf of Lead Partner, AVM Benard Chiobi (rtd), stressed the importance of putting in place proactive measures to mitigate the impact of negative occurrences and simultaneous strenghtening of processes by both the Community Resilient Agents and the Early Response stakeholders to ensure successful elections.

Ozumba who is also the Managing Consultant of Ozion Limited, political communications Advisors, drilled the Early Warning participants over two days on their role as Community Resilient Agents who will undertake prompt detection and collation of essential data, analyse and report same to designated Early Response teams in the Local Government Areas in actionable format thereby dictating immediate action to forestall threats that may mar the elections.

Speaking on the third-day in a session with the Early Response (ER) team, on Co-ordinated Responses to The Early Warnings: Strenghtening Multi-Stakeholder Preparedness, Ozumba stated that moving from early warning to early response is critical because early warning will be useless without timely, effective response.

He emphasised the avoidance of delayed communication, unclear roles, or lack of resources, stressing that “information must trigger action,” otherwise it remains only information not prevention.Further more, Ozumba advocated for rapid response action plan indicating who does what, when and how with assignment of accountability to avoid duplications.

He concluded that the ideal situation is for the communication chain to be quick, reliable and tested with resources like hotlines and security contacts that allow for rapid deployment.

Earlier, in her opening remarks, the Project Manager, Barrister. Asabe Ndahi explained the objectives, expectations, and ground rules governing the project, and harped on the need for commitment and accountability from the trainees to meet the expectations of The Kukah Centre and the National Peace Committee (NPC) in furtherance of sustained quest for peaceful elections by engaging with key actors to avoid any action that threatens rather than promote the peace, unity and development of Nigeria.

Barrister Asabe said that the Early Warning-Early Response training in Anambra State is a pilot phase of the programme, and praised the State’s leadership structure at all levels which makes for easy identification of relevant stakeholders. She also called on the participants to see themselves as change agents who must embrace the onerous duty of service towards ensuring peaceful elections not just in Anambra State but in Nigeria.

The training programme which was sponsored by the European Union is a project of The Kukah Centre aimed at building a culture of tolerance and peaceful campaigns amongst political actors through co-ordinated actions of Local Government level Early Warning System piloted by Community Resilient Agents who are equipped to track and report potential security threats and report same to the Early Response team of stakeholders with the reach and know-how for nipping in the bud potential breakdown of peace before, during and post the elections in Anambra State.

Participants for the Early Warning(EW) System training were drawn from the twenty-one local Government Arears of Anambra State, while the Early Response (ER) stakeholders in attendance include; Igwe Ben Emeka (Okebo II of Umueri), NLC, Boss, Sir Humphery Emeka Nwafor, ASTUC President General, Sir Vin Dike, IPAC Secretary, Hon. Ugo Eminent, ANCISRO MD, Sir Chuka Nnabuife, representatives of Community Based Organizations, Nigerian Union of Journalists, the Police, and Civil Defence amongst others.