By Dele Ogbodo
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC)/TI-Nigeria in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands, have advocated for an efficient oversight of the defence and security sector to ensure transparency, prevent fraud and abuse, and promote efficiency in the fight against insecurity.
In his opening remark at a 2 day training conference for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Lawyers and the Media in Kano, Kano State, the Executive Director, CISLAC/TI-Nigeria, Mr. Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), averred that upholding the mandates of relevant institutions with fundamental responsibilities to monitor compliance, ensure fairness, equity and address ethical misconduct.
The training, according to the Executive Director was among others was aimed at strengthening the capacity of CSOs to advocate and conduct state and national engagements towards an accountable, responsive, and efficient management of the Nigeria defence and security sector
The training also dwelt on thematic analysis of government defence integrity index, and enhancing external oversight and promoting disclosure of information in the Defence and Security Sectors:
“A Trend Analysis, by Dr. Sunday Adejoh and Anti-corruption Reforms in Nigeria’s Defence and Security Sector: Issues, Challenges and Prospects, and Defence procurement, Finance and Personnel Management: The imperative of oversight by Prof. Ibrahim Bello.
However, the members averred that contradictory provisions in the existing laws including Official Secret Act, LFN 2004, and Freedom of Information Act, constitute a major impediment to information disclosure, thus limiting external oversight effort at all levels.
After brainstorming exhaustively on various thematic sessions, the following observations and recommendations were made:
OBSERVATIONS:
The meeting observed that defence and security oversight supports timely observation and accurate information gathering on threat signals to elicit appropriate response and external oversight helps in interrogating misconduct, indiscipline, misappropriation, mismanagement, and corruption, while ensuring standards, professionalism, quality assurance to sustain principle of civil-military relations among others.