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NIGERIA: A COUNTRY ANALYSIS OF HISTORY, POTENTIALS, AND RESTRAINTS FOR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS. NIGERIA: A COUNTRY ANALYSIS OF HISTORY, POTENTIALS, AND RESTRAINTS FOR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS.

EVOLUTION OF REGIONAL SECURITY OUTFITS IN NIGERIA: ETHNIC OR COMMUNITY POLICING – THREATS OF PERCEPTION, LOCATION AND COHERENCE. BY JAYE GASKIA.
[NOTE FOR A PANEL DISCUSSION AT A MULTISTAKEHOLDERS’ CONSULTATIVE FORUM ON PEACE AND SECURITY CHALLENGES IN NIGERIA ORGANISED BY CISLAC AND FES; 5TH NOVEMBER 2020]

THE CONTEXT:
It should be noted that inherent in purpose and them of this forum is the notion that there are ongoing peace and security challenges in Nigeria, and that these are of such a scale and scope as to have engendered the emergence and evolution of regional security outfits in the country.
Thus, from the recognition of the depth and breadth of the challenges, have emerged the response of regional security outfits ostensibly to feel the gap, since as it is said nature abhors a vacuum.
The posing of the question of ethnic or community policing, as well as of the question of threats of perception, location and coherence is also indicative of a concern about the manner of emergence and subsequent evolution of these outfits, as well as of the challenges that they have emerged in response to.
CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATIONS:
It is important to begin the conversation by drawing the distinction between the Police as an institution and organisation, and policing as a function and role.
Policing is about ensuring security and safety of persons and properties in a given area, including ensuring that rules, regulations and laws are obeyed [law enforcement], as well as preventing, detecting, and investigating crimes, preparatory to prosecution.
The police a police service on the other hand, is an institution and organised established to carry out policing duties.
The police, although universally the lead and main agency for internal security purposes is nevertheless not the only bodies established with policing mandate. Other law enforcement agencies also carry out statutory policing duties and functions with respect to specific mandates and crimes.
It is in this sense that it is important to distinguish between the structure of policing, for instance, a Federal, State, Local government or Community police; and the approach of community policing.
Community policing is a strategic approach to policing that emphasises partnership between the police structure and the community it is policing. It is thus a strategic approach, and in the case of Nigeria it is now included in the Police Act 2020.
It is also important at this point to draw attention to the notion of ethnic policing as opposed to community policing.
Ethnic policing, is like community policing a strategic approach to policing, that emphasises and revolves around policing in partnership with the ethnic community. In this instance, the community is now defined, not as the country, the state, the local government area, or the village, town or city; but as the ethnic group.
It is important to underscore this point because, the manner of the emergence of the regional security outfits is such that they have emerged as and are evolving as ethnic security outfits, adopting the principle and strategic policing approach of ethnic policing.
To be sure, regardless of the dominance or otherwise of this or that ethnic group within a region, here defined as the geo-political zones in Nigeria, or even of the relative ethnic homogeneity of any given region; a regional security outfit, oriented on the principle of ethnic policing, is not a regional policing organisation, nor will it be able to undertake effective, fair and just regional policing.
The reason is that such an outfit based on ethnic identity, is in reality an ethnic security outfit, undertaking ethnic policing, and on the road to becoming an ethnic, rather than a regional police organisation.
This is because there is no region in Nigeria without significant populations of Nigerians not originally from those regions, who are nevertheless domiciled and resident in these regions.
CITIZENSHIP:
To address this fundamental foundational challenge, we have to address the question of citizenship, that is citizenship of Nigeria. In the US for instance, citizenship is defined as “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the states wherein they reside….”
Unless and until we accept a notion of citizenship that recognises all persons born [of Nigerian parents] or naturalized in Nigeria, and who are subject to the jurisdiction of Nigeria, are citizens of Nigeria and of the states in Nigeria where they reside; any movement towards the consolidation and legitimization of regional, state, local government or community police institutions and structures, will simply compound the problem of insecurity, and the challenges with policing, and further strengthen and entrench our ethnoreligious fault-lines.
If we accept in our constitution, laws and practice the notion of universal citizenship of Nigeria based on residency, then the establishment of such security outfits will be based on the principle of residency, where the community bis defined as where you are resident, where you live, and where community members are defined as residents of the community, and where the principle of community policing is based on residency, and also manifests as residential policing.
In this regard, recruitment into the different outfits will be based on residency, and policing will be undertaken in a manner as to secure the lives and properties of all residents.
THE THREATS:
From the foregoing it can already be noted that the threats inherent to and emergence and evolution of regional security outfits, include those around perception – being perceived as, and operating as ethnic outfits; Location – that is where they are based, their regional character, compounded by the ethnic definition and promoted identities of these various regions or geo-political zones in the country.
Underlying all of these threats is the non-resolution of the question of citizenship, inherent in the ambiguity of Nigerian citizenship, as it is somehow diminished, hampered and restricted by the notion of indigenshenship, constitutionally entrenched with respect to the state of origin principle with respect to appointments and representation into and in state and public institutions.
Unless we replace the concept and practice of state of origin, which is hinged on being an indigene of such a state, with that of state of residency, the establishment, emergence and evolution of regional security outfits will continue to pose significant challenge to National Unity and the ability to build a United Nigeria, largely because it will continue to strengthen, and entrench ethnic rivalries and stroke ethnic suspicions.
Nonetheless, there is an additional, and even more structural and systemic threat posed by the emergence of these regional outfits; and this is that of coherence, coordination and synergy between the various security outfits.
The first significant threat inherent to coherence is that of managing cross jurisdictions. The mandates of the various security outfits and the police as well as law enforcement agencies will require to be harmonised and streamlined, such each agencies mandate, and their respective jurisdictions are clearly spelt out.
Furthermore, it will be necessary for the enabling laws, and the ensuing Standard Operating Procedures [SOPs] of the different agencies to set out the procedures and processes for collaboration where crimes cross jurisdictions, or where the performance of their mandates necessitates crossing jurisdictional boundaries. A physical structural mechanism to ensure this coordination will be required to be established.
But crime prevention, detection, investigation, and prosecution require also the efforts of other institutions within the criminal justice system, including the Courts, the Prosecution agencies, the correctional and custodial [and non-custodial] facilities, etc among others.
It is in this sense that a reform of internal security will require a holistic approach that targets the comprehensive, simultaneous and integrated reform of policing, the police, other law enforcement agencies, the courts, the correctional systems and the prosecution systems among others.
THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF THE NIGERIAN STATE:
To say that the challenges with internal security and policing, as well as with the regional responses to these challenges are systemic and structural, is to say that they are invariably governance challenges that are informed and driven by the nature and character of the Nigerian state.
The Nigerian state in its origin is a colonial state, established to pacify with force the natives. It is therefore a state that originated, and has evolved as one that sees citizens as subjects to be pacified and to be contained. It is also why dissent is criminalised and frowned upon, and where the resort to use of force is instinctive and inherent to the state and its law enforcement and security agencies, including the police and the military.
The colonial origin of the state which has been taken over and maintained and sustained by the indigenous ruling class is also one that is congenitally discriminative, and inherently biased against the poor.
Thus, the state apparatus at different levels have been used by different factions of the ruling class to pursue factional class interests which are often framed in ethnic and religious terms.
Compounding this inherent systemic and structural polarization and ethnicization of the state, is also the impact of decades of military rule with respect to policing, the and the central role of the police in internal security.
Under Military, given that the military was the government, internal security became the added duty of the military, and the foundation and basis for the erosion of the capability of the police and the credibility of the police with regards to maintaining internal security began to be laid and consolidated.
Thus, it is that at the inception of the fourth republic in 1999, the Nigerian state had become one that encountered citizens as potential dissidents to be pacified; one whose apparatus of force was deployed by the faction controlling it in pursuit of its own interest; and one in which the police had become hollowed out, and transformed into a glorified vigilante, armed, but insufficiently equipped and trained, and angry by its rejection by, and alienation from both the state and citizens.
A major factor in the internal security challenges faced by the country is thus supplanting of the role of the police by the military in internal security, and the dysfunctional character of the Nigerian state and of the ensuing governance.
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
• From the foregoing it is clear that there is an urgent need for the comprehensive reform of the police, and of policing – that is including all the other law enforcement and internal security agencies.
• However, for this reform to be effective and impactful, there is a need to see the security sector and the criminal justice sector as integrated and mutually dependent; and thus to see the reform agenda and process as a comprehensive, holistic, and integrated reform of the police, law enforcement and policing, and of the courts, correctional system, etc, among others; and one that is taking place concurrently and simultaneously.
• An integral part of this comprehensive reform is the withdrawal of the military from routine internal security functions, and the concomitant building of the capability of the police to undertake its role as the lead internal security agency.
• To police a country as large and diverse as Nigeria, policing needs to be devolved and decentralized. This will require constitutional amendments that will enable federating units to establish policing agencies; and that will move internal security, police, law enforcement, correctional institutions, among others from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list.
• A constitutional amendment guaranteeing universal citizenship of Nigeria on the basis of residency – that is anyone qualified for Nigerian citizenship is a citizen of Nigeria and the state where they are resident – has become very urgent. This will ensure that when policing has been devolved and decentralized, and federating units are able to constitutionally establish their police services, this will be based on residency, and any Nigerian resident in any state will be able to become recruited into and serve in the state police.
• Ultimately, a holistic and comprehensive governance reform will also be required, one that will address the character and nature of the Nigerian state and retool and re-engineer it into a state that is responsive the needs and aspirations of her citizens, and one that in so doing is oriented towards provisioning the basic needs and social services and infrastructure of citizens – that is a state that responds to and fulfils the intent of the constitution in chapter two of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria [CFRN]1999.
• To fill the governance vacuum at local community level, and enable the effective implementation of community policing as a strategic approach to security, there is a need as part of a comprehensive governance reform to explore the potential for establishment of formal, constitutionally enabled self-government institutions at the community level. Communities through formal community administrations should become a tier, the forth tier of government/administration in Nigeria.
• Furthermore, immediate steps will be required to be taken undertake the full implementation of the provisions of Police Act 2020 [as well as the Police Trust Fund Act] towards enabling the reform of the current federalized Nigeria Police.

YOUTH ENGAGEMENT FOR GLOBAL ACTION AS PANACEA FOR THE PREVENTION OF VIOLENT EXTREMISM. BY JAYE GASKIA. AUGUST 2020.
[BEING NOTES FOR TEXT OF PRESENTATION AT THE 2020 YOUTH SUMMIT ON PVE IN KOGI AND NASARAWA STATES, ORGANISED BY AAN AND SARVE II]

SETTING THE CONTEXT:
Violent extremism is a local, national, regional and global phenomena that affects communities, distabilises countries, and impacts gravely on regional and global security and peace.
Quite often poverty and inequality, a lack of education, unemployment, and a lack of economic opportunities, have been identified or suggested as the main factors leading youth to join violent extremist groups in their communities. There is also a strong belief that social exclusion and feelings of marginalisation are driving youth to embrace extremist ideologies .
In this sense therefore, and as recognised in the UN Resolution 2178 [2014], “preventing violent extremism that can be conducive to terrorism requires collective efforts, including preventing radicalization, recruitment and mobilization of individuals into terrorist groups and becoming foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs).”
With particular respect to education for instance, the very nature, content and character of the national education system is of great significance. Issues like access, affordability, classroom type and size, mode of instruction, and rights issues in education, are some of the issues that may either encourage the interests of young people or lead to their alienation. When the education system is such that it fails to equip young people with necessary skills, including critical thinking, respect for human rights, a sense of national and global citizenship, and digital literacy, young persons may become alienated and become susceptible to violent extremist ideologies, and recruitment into violent extremist groups.

ADDRESSING THE DRIVERS AND TACKLING VIOLENT EXTREMISM:
If we say that violent extremism [VE] is a global, regional, national and local phenomena, then the engagement of youth, and engagement with youths towards preventing violent extremism [PVE], must of necessity also be undertaken along global, regional, national and local lines and levels.
The implication of this is that, while we organise and engage to act locally, we must also build and strengthen solidarity and alliances nationally, regionally, and globally in order to governance and society more equitable, socially just, and socially inclusive.
In this context, we require to facilitate and support youth engagements with governance and their communities at local levels, while also supporting them to build national, regional, and global alliances and networks. If the military effort to defeat and degrade the armed Boko Haram [BH] insurgency requires a Multinational Joint Military Taskforce [MNJTF] effort; then it stands to reason, that there is an urgent necessity for the enabling of a working alliance and networks of youth organisations and youth PVE efforts across the countries involved in the MNJTF and impacted by BH.
Additionally, if there are push and pull factors – that is social and societal, as well as individual and personal factors – that predispose, or that can ultimately predispose to VE; then any engagement with youths towards PVE must also be such that these are conducive to addressing, if not surmounting these push [structural] and pull [individual] predisposing factors.
And furthermore, if the impact of Violent Extremism [VE] is multidimensional and multifarious; affecting multiple stakeholders and sectors; then it stands to reason that the engagement of youth and engagement with youths towards PVE must also be thought out, designed and implemented in a manner as to be able to effectively address and tackle the multidimensional character of the impact; understanding the integrated and interconnected nature of these many dimensions; and thus logically embracing a multistakeholder and participatory approach, in order to be inclusive and to enable equity.
National governments and the international community will need to invest greater financial and structural support to assist in reforming national education systems to ensure that youth are equipped with the skills necessary to positively contribute to society. There is also an urgent need for an emphasis on human rights and national and global citizenship in order to promote tolerance, respect and community cohesion, and to create resilience to violent extremist pathways. Furthermore, an emphasis on critical thinking and digital literacy skills is critical not only to increase the employability of young people but also to challenge the increasing usage of the Internet by violent extremist groups to recruit young members .

PROMOTING ENGGEMENT WITH COMMUNITIES AND YOUTH EMPOWERMENT:
The UN PoA states that it is necessary to have ‘regional and national dialogues on preventing violent extremism with a range of actors’ including youth, gender equality activists, marginalised groups, municipalities and social media companies. Youth awareness of the dialogue initiatives that do exist should be enhanced and dialogues should be supported and developed in areas where they are lacking.
Youth engagement on PVE ultimately require to be oriented primarily on the foundation of enabling and enhancing youth participation in decision making and implementation processes. Youth should be supported to actively and proactively participate in monitoring, tracking and redressing grievances; and much more importantly in enabling autonomous space and platforms for youth participation in decision making, policy and program design and implementation towards addressing the plethora of grievances.
These will include grievances around exclusion, human rights violations, lack of access to opportunities and basic services in education, health, housing, hygiene, etc; as well as those around poverty, unemployment, inequality, and exclusion from livelihoods systems.
Essentially this engagement is an engagement with governance broadly defined and conceived, not narrowly construed. And in this sense, it is important to note the different dimensions of governance, including economic governance, natural resource governance, socio-cultural governance, community governance, political governance, basic services delivery governance [ensuring universal access to education, health, housing, hygiene, etc].

FACILITATING NETWORKING AND MEANINGFUL DIALOGUES :
Given that young activists often express concerns that youth are seldom involved in decision making, and that whatever appearance of involvement in decision making that exist are largely tokenistic; The international community will need to proactively promote genuine youth consultation, engagement and representation at the local and national levels. These will require the encouragement of governments and municipalities to actively invite youth and their organisations to participate in decision making and deliver feedback to decision-makers.
Additionally, the international community must focus on training and empowering youth through capacity-building and equipping young people with the skills to actively engage and participate in decision-making processes themselves.

ENGAGING WITH YOUTH:
The 2015 United Nations Security Council Resolution 2250 (SCR 2250) on Youth, Peace and Security and emerging literature emphasizes the need to switch the narrative to recognize youth as positive agents for peacebuilding and security, rather than stigmatizing them as risks. If youths are seen as the future of human society, then it becomes incumbent, not only to see youth as positive social forces for social transformation, but also to take concerted steps, working with youths to build an enduring bridge between the present and the future.
SCR 2250 encourages governments, international organizations, and civil society to actively engage youth populations as partners in shaping peace and security processes and implementing promising practices related to comprehensive, community-based solutions so that they may have greater peace dividends.
Towards this end, the SCR 2250 2015] calls for action in the following areas; Youth participation; Protection of Youth; Engaging with youth towards prevention; enabling youth to build the required partnerships to realise the objectives of the resolution; designing and implementing rehabilitation and reintegration programs for impacted young persons; and putting mechanisms in place for effective follow-up activities and processes.

STEPS TOWARDS EFFECTIVE PROGRAMMING ON YOUTH AND PCVE :
The following represent a summary of good practice categorized into six programing steps for engagement of youth in peace and security and PVE;
1. Determine the characteristics of the VE or violence phenomenon in the setting being analyzed: Context varies from place to place. It is important that every situation be analysed and understood in accordance with its own specific context, and with respect to how these specific contexts interacts with external dynamics to the locality.
2. Assess whether prevention or mitigation is the main task and whether recruitment, community support, or an enabling environment that permits VE or violent groups to operate are the most pressing concerns: in order words ensure that you are responding to actual needs.
3. Identify which populations, geographical areas, and/or institutions are particularly vulnerable and why: this will enable the design of an informed and inclusive response, that responds to the specific needs of each group, area, interest, etc.
4. Ascertain those social processes and group dynamics that are critical to facilitating or undermining recruitment and/or community support: identify potential allies and potential spoilers.
5. Determine the political, socio-economic, and cultural drivers (especially those affecting youth) at work and assess their salience after reviewing the analysis in Steps One through Four.
6. Prioritize drivers, locations, and determine development assistance and strategic communications interventions. This may entail a further step of a Threat Assessment Matrix template for the practitioner to identify the type of drivers.

APPLYING A YOUTH LENS IN TAKING THESE STEPS :
In order to ensure that the six programming steps are youth based, youth driven, youth focused, and youth led, a number of principles require to be adhered to. Such principles and ideas will include:
• Involving youth in the design of assessment questions, data collection, analysis, and reporting.
• Identifying credible youth to speak to other youth in their terms (using slang and neighborhood dialect and adhering to localized gender norms)—rather than relying on the most educated youth from the capital city.
• Ascertaining which youth are peer influencers and building capacities for youth to be positive role models with their peers.
• Taking steps to ensure that youth peer influencers who are being selected and whose capacities are being built, are not separated from the mainstream of youths, to prevent their possible alienation form other youth.
• Creating a youth advisory council to provide input throughout the duration of a project.
• Providing youth with opportunities to lead projects or project components.
• Including youth representatives in project management and oversight teams.
STRATEGIES FOR CROSS SECTOR INOLVEMENT:
Plans of action need effective communication strategies so that relevant stakeholders not only understand what is needed but also comprehend how to implement the relevant action items. The successful communication and integration of the UN PoA must involve an innovative cross-sector approach and strategy .
The UN PoA calls for national governments to develop their own National Action Plans on PVE. Nigeria has developed its own national action plan, subtitled “building resilient communities.” The national plan of action which was approved in August 2017, and has a three year lifespan, also calls for state governments and local governments to adapt the national plan of action in developing their own respective state and local government plans of action on PVE.
Youth and youth organisations need to be supported and enabled with the processes of implementing the UN PoA, and the National Plan of Action; while also being supported and enabled to participate actively in the development and implementation of respective states and local governments plans of action on PVE.
To be clear, the development and implementation of a successful national communications strategy on the UN PoA and the National Plan of Action would require the involvement of a multiplicity of actors, including governments, schools, religious representatives, social media companies, and community representatives.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS :
These are based on adaptation of the conclusions and recommendations of the YouthCAN UN-PVE Survey in 2017. These include:
1. Assisting local and national governments with the implementation of the UN PoA and Resolution 2250 and developing national and local plans of action on PVE by creating a platform to access existing tool kits, best practices, and practical guides for developing PVE and CVE programs.
2. Facilitating the convening of local and national government representatives with young activists working on PVE within their regions to build stronger in-country and cross-country networks. This will contribute to youth engagement that can impact and drive real change.
3. Investing in the education, capacity-building, training, and skills development of young people by strengthening existing community-led programs and facilitate the creation of community-based initiatives in regions where they are absent. This will allow for the development of youth-led initiatives and projects that can multiply through peer-to-peer engagement.
4. Strengthening and supporting regional and international youth networks that provide platforms for young people to share knowledge, projects, and best-practices.
5. Enabling and promoting cross-sector strategies that unite governments, private sectors and civil society. By combining sectoral expertise, the much needed innovation and scale can be applied to PVE and CVE efforts.

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