International Alert - NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA

Muhyideen Jimoh
Dec, Wed, 2024

NGO trains CSOs, MDAs on conflict sensitivity, climate adaptation

154 total views today

By Angela Atabo

International Alert, a leading peace building organisation, has built the capacity of civil society organsiations and Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on conflict sensitivity and climate adaptation approaches.

The Country Director of International Alert, Dr Paul Nyulaku-Bemshima, made this known at a workshop on the Nigerian Conflict Sensitivity and Climate Adaptation Facility (NC-SAF) in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop with the theme, “Capacity Building and Strategy Planning Workshop on Conflict Sensitivity and Climate Adaptation Approaches” was organised with support from Irish Aid.

Nyulaku-Bemshima said that the workshop, which was a follow-up to the launch of the NC-SAF in November, brought together key stakeholders to discuss the intersections of climate change and conflict in Nigeria.

“This is the consultative learning event of NC-SAF because organisations indicated capacity building as something that we should address imminently.

“More importantly, we want this event to enable different organisations understand different perspectives around climate change, climate adaptation, mitigation, and conflict sensitivity.

“Most of the conflicts in Nigeria are resource-based and so conflict and climate change are existential issues that we must deal with all together.

“So in this workshop, key outcome for us is enhanced learning, co-creation of ideas and at the end of the day, this fits nicely into the strategy session,” he said.

According to him, the strategy session will prepare stakeholders with enough knowledge and skills to make the most contributions of the priorities into the NC-SAF.

He said that, although there were existing work being done on climate change and peace building in Nigeria, organisations were still working in silos, thus the need for harmonisation.

“Coming together gives us a multiplier effect in terms of advocacy and in terms of creating the needed policy change,”he said.

Also speaking, Prof. Muhammad Baba, National Publicity Secretary, Arewa Consultative Forum and a professor of Sociology with interest in Environment, Societies, and Conflict, commended International Alert for the initiative.

Baba said that the convergence was very important because it raised consciousness amongst stakeholders about the impact and the intersection of climate, conflict, and other issues affecting the society.

“We know there is a great nexus between ability of people to utilise the environment and conflict.

“In a lot of places in Nigeria, in the Northwest, in the Northeast and the Central, these are daily issues that affect the lives of the people.

“I think one of the first steps towards the solution is to understand exactly what is going on,” he said.

He said that it was important to understand the dynamics between climate change and induction of conflict and how they impact on human social organisation.

“This is because if we are not careful, climate change is something that will lead to conflict and this conflict will consume everyone, especially with the rising population in Nigeria,” he said.

Baba.said that the dwindling natural resources was frightening, adding that life was declining in the rural areas and getting harder in the urban areas with accommodation, water and electricity challenges .

He that there was the need to create awareness among Nigerians to adapt to lifestyles to mitigate climate change.

Mr Nathaniel Awuapila, President of the Society for Peace Studies and Practice (SPSP), said that the workshop was an opportunity to ensure that climate change policy was not just on paper, but implemented across the country.

“Nigerians need to acknowledge that climate change is real. There are stakeholders, very influential people that have continued to deny the impact of climate change.

“Let them see what happens annually when it rains and let them see the drought they experience sometimes.

“These are all impacts of climate change. It is real and we need to begin to take appropriate action immediately,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Kadiri Abdulrahman

Folashade Adeniran
Dec, Fri, 2024

General News

NGO partners Nigeria Police to operationalise mutual accountability, community scorecard

171 total views today

By Angela Atabo/Emmanuel Olorniruha

International Alert, a peace building organisation, is partnering with the Nigeria Police to operationalise community scorecard methodology to promote transparency and mutual accountability for better public safety.

Dr Paul Nyulaku-Bemshima, Country Director of International Alert, made this known at a One-Day Consultative Workshop on “Mutual Accountability and Community Scorecard”, organised by the organisation in Abuja on Thursday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop was supported by the UK Integrated Security Fund (ISF), Nigeria Stability Programme.

It brought together stakeholders from the community and police public relations officers from 12 states.

Nyulaku-Bemshima said the workshop was part of efforts to promote community policing and improve police-community relations in Nigeria with the aim of strengthening trust and cooperation between the police and local communities.

According to him, community scorecard is a tool that allows the police and community members to assess their performance and work together to address areas of improvement.

“Mutual accountability is an approach in community policing which we are trying for the first time in Nigeria.

“What makes mutual accountability distinct is that it recognises what responsibility the public has, and what the obligation of the police is, all towards improving public safety and security,” he said.

Nyulaku-Bemshima said that another distinct point about the approach was its scoring system.

“They will work together to address issues and score themselves on the positives and negatives as would be captured.

“Where the scores are looking good, they will work on how they can sustain it and where the scores are not good, seek understanding among themselves on how to address it.

“That is the hallmark of what mutual accountability, community, state and national level scorecard implies,” he said

He said that the concept would help in presenting an evidence-based framework.

“At the end, stakeholders will draft a work plan to help in designing a strategy on how to trickle down the approach to the community, then the state and national level subsequently,” he said.

The Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, commended the organisation for the initiative, adding that the Police wants people to know exactly what it is doing and how to improve on it.

Adejobi, who was represented by El-Mustapha Sani, Head, Complaint Response Unit, Force Headquarters, said that the Police alone could not improve on its services without the participation and contribution from citizens and other stakeholders.

“At the Public Complaint Response Unit of the Nigerian Police Force, we deal with issues of members of the public who are not satisfied with our services.

“Our door is open and we are always welcoming new innovation that will make members of the public to have trust in the Force to ensure the protection of human rights,” he said.

Also speaking, Mr Cliff Gai, Programme Lead, UK ISF, said that the ISF supported works that seek to help Nigeria to operationalise and operate the Police Act of 2020.

Gai said that this was part of the strategic defence partnership between Nigeria and the UK.

“It is hoped that the funding that we provide will strengthen the operationalisation of this Act by ensuring that everybody understands what it says.

“It is for citizens to know what is expected of them in terms of supporting policing, because security is everyone’s business

“There are certain responsibilities that are expected of citizens as well, and not just the police officers out there,” he said.

A participant, SP Catherine Anene, Public Relations Officer, Benue Command, commended International Alert for contributing to the police’s drive to achieving a people-friendly force.

Anene said that this kind of engagement would help to understand what to expect from the populace.

“We have an opportunity to discuss with them to understand exactly what they perceive or how they see the police.

“So, it will make it very easy for us to relate with members of the public and they will relate with us with understanding,” she said.

Mr Rikki Nwajiofor, Deputy Secretary –General, National Youth Council of Nigeria, said the community scorecard would give community members a sense of belonging and to know that the police is their friend.

Nwajiofor said that it would also give the police a sense of duty.

“It will, thus, create a synergy for communication as both parties point out the positive and negative issues and then know how to forge ahead for a better policing and a better Nigeria,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Kadiri Abdulrahman

Muhyideen Jimoh
Nov, Fri, 2024

Defence/Security , Features

Building Police capacity for better policing through International Alert

443 total views today

By Angela Atabo, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

Effective policing is crucial for maintaining law and order, ensuring public safety and promoting social stability.

However, before this can be achieved, it is important for the capacity of the police personnel who are the drivers of law and order to be built through effective training.

In a significant move to achieve this, International Alert, Non-Governmental Organisation supporting peace building and conflict prevention, organised a two-day Training Needs Assessment Workshop for Police Cadets in Kano.

Dr Paul Nyulaku-Bemshima, Country Director, International Alert, said the training aimed at enhancing officers’ learning needs related to the Police Act 2020, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) and Gender Awareness/Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV).

Nyulaku-Bemshima said the training which covered personnel from the 19 police colleges and functions and the police academy, Kano,is being executed under the UK-funded integrated security project known as the “Nigeria Reform Initiative”.

He said that training is a very good entry point for increasing understanding and ensuring that police officers are well-versed in the intricacies of the law, enabling them to carry out their duties efficiently and responsibly.

“If you want to increase learning and understanding around the Police Act, the trainers of police operatives from the police training institutions are actually the key people that you should focus on.

“We are teaching and learning with them new communication tools, training methodologies for translating very heavy information like the Police Act 2020 into very simple ways those trainees will understand and be able to apply at the end of their training.

“We will be expanding these trainings across board as the project goes on, because everything most of the police officers deployed to different parts of the country and to different divisions learn and do starts from the training institutions.

“We would outline a manual on the key elements that would go into a training manual that they could use in the different training institutions”, she said.

Nyulaku-Bemshima said that the simplified manuals when developed, would be produced and shared across board, the quarterly check would be initiated to know how well the manuals are working.

“Training is at the heart of operational effectiveness of the police.

“So we hope that key outcomes from this will be a better understanding of the Police Act 2020, as well as its application in their day-to-day lives towards enhancing public safety and security in Nigeria.”

CP Rashid Afegbua, Commissioner of Police, Training, Force Headquarters Abuja, the Police Act 2020 and the ACJA are crucial laws that regulate the police therefore, trainings are pivotal if the force is to really get it right.

“Working with International Alerts, as regards simplifying these documents, for us to have it handy, it is going to be very important and useful to us, especially for our training institutions.

“By the end of the day, when we have done all these, we will have the officers go back and cascade whatever they have learnt to the colleges”, he said.

Afegbua said the police is working on attitudinal change to increase believe in the phrase “the police is your friend” by adopting some changes so that the public would appreciate the force more.

Prof. Olu Ogunsakin, Director-General, National Institute of Police Studies Abuja, speaking on “Detailed Examination of Key Provisions for Policing” said the basic tenet of policing was about developing trust and confidence.

“What we are trying to do now is to introduce a level of competence that will assist them to be able to provide the necessary service to all Nigerians.

“Apart from the essence of the capacity building, it is a guideline for them to be able to act so they can provide a standard policing service to all Nigerians.

“The Police Act itself has 17 paths that are linked together .Majority of what we are trying to look at is how the police dispose their powers ,we need to be able to respect the lives of the people we protect and then protect their properties.”

Another facilitator, Prof. Isaac Albert, Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan, while identifying areas where knowledge is lacking, said the workshop aimed to revisit what is taught in police colleges to align it with global best practices.

“The world is changing. The Nigerian environment is changing. When the likes of the IG was recruited, we did not have terrorism, banditry and the level of insurgency that we are having across the land.

“That is to say, the curriculum that was used for training all the big police bigwigs across the country needs to be updated because the conflict environment has changed.

“Now, what we are trying to do and which the police has permitted us to do is to ask those who are managing the training schools, if there are gaps for us to fill in what in teaching the cadets and how they are taught.

“We are not the ones that will change anything in the schools, but we want to sensitise them to the fact that the security environment of today requires rejigging what we teach to be in tandem with the problems they want to solve.”

SP Julius Nwaejie, one of the directing staff attached to Nigeria Police Academy, Wudil, Kano, said the training was an eye-opener, very sound, well-packaged, well-facilitated and well-delivered.

Nwaejie said: “This course, we pray, should be a continuous one because we have learned a lot and it has made us to be more prepared to offer more to our cadets and recruits as the case may be.

“We are very grateful to International Alert and we believe that they will continue to be updating our knowledge more and more so that we’ll be getting more transformed, more well-informed police officers that will serve the country in a better way.”

Asp. Faith Dadagbon, attached to National Institute of Police Studies, appreciates the enormity of the challenge ahead.

“International Alert has trained us to be good trainers by way of helping us to understand the Police Act better and to have a good knowledge and skills required to be able to cascade them to our recruits , cadets and even others officers .

“The enhanced knowledge on the Police Act, the ACJA as well as the things discussed in the course of the training concerning gender issue will really help us to carry out our assignment as trainers better”, she said.

The police officers believe that by strengthening the knowledge and skills of police personnel, International Alert seeks to promote accountability, transparency, and community trust in law enforcement.

The capacity-building initiative is expected to have a positive impact on policing standards, ultimately contributing to safer and more just communities.(NAN Features)

**If used please credit the writer and News Agency of Nigeria.