The Director-General of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Dr Joseph Ochogwu, has urged governments and other stakeholders to commit more resources to peacebuilding, warning that the consequences of allowing conflicts to escalate are far more expensive than preventing them.
Ochogwu made the call on Thursday in Abuja while delivering a keynote address titled, “Investing in Peace: A Collective Responsibility for Everyone,” at the 2026 Peace and Dialogue Awards organised by the Ufuk Dialogue Foundation in partnership with the IPCR.
He said Nigeria and other nations must shift from responding to conflicts after they occur to investing deliberately in prevention, early warning mechanisms, peace education, employment opportunities for young people, interfaith literacy, justice reforms and community-based mediation.
“To invest in peace is to move from rhetoric to resources, from reaction to prevention,” he said.
Ochogwu cited global military expenditure, which exceeded $2.4tn in 2024, compared with less than $60bn spent on peacebuilding, representing only about 2.5 per cent of military spending.
“We fund the bullet, not the classroom that could have prevented the trigger,” he said.
According to the IPCR DG, countries across West Africa and the Sahel are dealing with overlapping challenges, including extremism, unconstitutional changes of government, farmer-herder disputes and displacement linked to climate change.
He advocated stronger regional responses, including cross-border early warning systems and joint security and community mechanisms.
Turning to Nigeria, Ochogwu said the country’s security challenges differed from one region to another, ranging from extremism in the North-East and banditry across the North-West and North-Central to resource-related conflicts in the Middle Belt, separatist agitation in the South-East and growing urban fragility.
He stressed that these challenges required responses tailored to specific circumstances rather than a single national approach.
“A blanket approach will fail,” he warned.
Ochogwu also described the Federal Government’s economic reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda as part of the broader investment required to strengthen peace, arguing that reducing poverty and creating jobs could lower people’s vulnerability to conflict.
“Economic renewal is not a separate track; it is the bedrock on which peace is sustained,” he said.
The IPCR boss identified four major factors behind Nigeria’s limited investment in peacebuilding: a gap in perception, fragmented interventions, poor alignment of funding and the lack of effective systems for tracking outcomes.
He said security equipment and other hardware often received greater attention because they were more visible, while donor-funded programmes were not always sufficiently aligned with national priorities. He added that peacebuilding accounted for less than 0.5 per cent of budgets coded across Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
Highlighting the financial consequences of violence, Ochogwu said conflict cost the global economy approximately $19.1tn in 2024, equivalent to 13.5 per cent of global GDP.
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He added that every dollar withheld from conflict prevention could eventually require 20 times more in humanitarian assistance and reconstruction.
In Nigeria, he said farmer-herder conflicts had cost the economy more than $14bn over five years, while infrastructure destruction in the North-East had resulted in losses exceeding $9bn. The conflicts have also displaced about 2.2 million people.
“The cost of not investing in peace far exceeds the cost of investing in it,” he said.
To address the challenges, Ochogwu proposed a five-point compact involving government, businesses, faith and traditional institutions, civil society and citizens.
Among his recommendations were the immediate implementation of the National Peace Policy, the creation of a National Peace Investment Fund, legislation requiring a minimum three per cent peacebuilding allocation across relevant MDAs and an expanded coordination role for the IPCR.
He further called on private companies to dedicate one per cent of their corporate social responsibility funds to peacebuilding initiatives.
“Peace is an enabler of profit,” he said.
Also speaking at the event, the President of the Ufuk Dialogue Foundation, Emrah Ilgen, said Nigeria’s diverse population should be treated as a strength rather than a basis for division.
He said peacebuilding involved strengthening relationships, creating opportunities for people with differing views to engage in dialogue and identifying areas of shared interest.
For Ufuk Dialogue Foundation, investing in peace means investing in relationships,” he said.
The Ufuk Dialogue Foundation and the IPCR subsequently honoured individuals, organisations and communities recognised for their contributions to peace, reconciliation, humanitarian service, education and youth development.
The Chairman of the occasion, Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, who was represented by AIG Victor Olaiya, highlighted the close relationship between peace and democratic governance.
“Peace and democracy cannot be separated because they are mutually reinforcing,” he said, adding, “Just as security is everyone’s business, peace is also everyone’s business.”
Disu urged the award recipients to regard the recognition as an encouragement to continue their work rather than the conclusion of their efforts.
“These awards send a message. They tell every Nigerian that peacebuilding is valuable work. They tell our young people that service to humanity is worthy of recognition,” he said.
He also cautioned Nigerian youths against engaging in activities that could jeopardise their future, damage their families’ reputation or bring disrepute to the country.