How a northern university is countering extremism

Mohammed Yahuza Bello, vice-chancellor of Bayero University, Kano has launched a counter extremism initiative aimed at tackling the problem through the use of counter narratives.

The peer to peer initiative entitled, ‘SUNRISE’, which is being implemented by students drawn from various faculties in the humanities is aimed at bringing young people together to join in the conversation of stamping out extremism and terrorism and to create a new era of religious tolerance and peace.

At launch of the initiative last Friday, the vice-chancellor condemned all forms of violence, extremism, hatred, intolerance and other vices, saying that the idea of using young people to reach out to their peers in the quest for peace, tolerance was a welcome development.

He also declared his support for the fight against violent extremism.

James Sunday, a post-graduate diploma student of the department of mass communication, and the team leader of the initiative, said the initiative was a call to action aimed at making young people stand up against extremism and resisting the appeals radicalism.

“The idea behind ‘Sunrise’ is that the darkness of terrorism and extremists that has affected our country through insurgency and by extension the world through the activities of ISIS and other allied terrorists network would be illuminated through our counter extremism narratives which would serve as an enlightenment phase in our history, bringing young people together to form a united front against extremism and the evil that comes with it,” he said.

The campaign, according to him, has brought young Muslims and Christians together through inter-faith dialogue on the need to reach a common ground to denounce terrorism and extremism, study and expose their deceptive recruitment strategies and appeals.

James appealed to young people to sign up, pledge to speak up against extremism and join the conversation on social media by searching ‘sunrise’ with the hashtag #embracethelight and on twitter via @sunriseBUK.

The initiative, which came as a university peer-to-peer countering extremism challenge, is the brain-child of the United States Homeland Security, Facebook and Edventure partners.