By Hillary Asemota
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC)/Transparency International in Nigeria (TI-Nigeria) with support from Open Society Foundation Africa (OSF-Africa), have advocated for Early Warning and Early Response (EWER) system as panacea to averting insecurity across communities in the country.
In a one-day dialogue organized by both organizations on community security architecture on early warning and early response attracted over 25 participants from a cross section of traditional rulers, community observers, members of the security actor, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the media South-south Nigeria was held to analyse early warning information and coordinate response efforts.
After the opening remark by the Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), Mr. Sebastian Kpalap, delivered a technical session with presentation titled: “Human Security Threat in Nigeria’s South South and the Imperative of Community Early Warning and Early Response system”
The dialogue EXTRAORDINAIREPEOPLE.COM was informed was aimed at strengthening local participation and expand community-based early warning and early response network and system.
In a joint release, signed by: Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), Kie Obomanu, Centre for Disability Partnership and Development (CEDIPAD) and Erabanabari theoptilus, Relief international Africa, stated that after an exhaustive brainstorming on various thematic issues, the following observations and recommendations were made:
The emergence of conflict multitude exacerbated by the activities of agitators, separatists and armed opposition groups has undermined the public safety and exposed communities to varied threats and attacks, 2. Common threats to human security in the South South region include cultism, inheritance law, unguarded activities of vigilante groups, sea piracy and robbery, land struggles, electoral violence, artisanal oil refinery, land grabbing, scavengers, dirty oil politics, and ungoverned spaces.
The threats to human security in the South-south are driven by poverty, bad governance, youth unemployment, drug abuse and environmental pollution, Delay in regulating the activities of vigilante groups impacts negatively on Community security and human rights, while backpedalling efficient operationalisation of Early Warning system, The unattended recurring activities of cult groups coupled with drug abuse in the South South region constitutes a threat to human and Community security, Delayed formation of a standardised structure on Early Warning and Early Response for data protection to facilitate anonymous reporting hampers proactive intelligence gathering, timely and coordinated response to threat signals in the region and Inter-agency rivalry and resource struggles among the security agencies hamper collective and coordinated response to reported threat signals.
On recommendations, it added: We the participants recommended as follows: Immediate creation of early warning early response situation rooms across the states in the South-south region to facilitate integrated reporting system and coordinated response to threat signals, Proactive community mobilisation and integration into early warning and early response system to facilitate reporting of threat signals and timely response, Regulating the activities of community vigilante groups through proper supervision for integration into threat signals reporting systems and structures to prevent reported cases of human rights abuse and illegal arms possessions by the groups, Redefining the role of vigilante groups through proper integration into community security architecture system with clearly-defined reporting mandates to mitigate reported cases of human right abuse.
Building synergy among response institutions with proper alignment of vigilante groups under a constitutional response institution like Nigerian Police to prevent reported cases of operational clashes in the region, Formidable group building in early warning process to engender strong voice in reporting threat signals and elicit timely response, Mainstreaming Community Security Architecture as part of the fundamental mandates and responsibilities of the Local Government authority to ensure proper supervision and coordination, Institutionalise monthly security meeting between the communities (under the Local Government) and response institutions to proactively identify, report and respond to threat signals, Creation of community spies with proper integration under the recommended EWER Situation Room, to facilitate intelligence gathering for coordinated response.
The others are: Leveraging the security vote to facilitate operationalisation of EWER reporting systems and response structure including the recommended Situation Room, Constitutionalising community think thank groups with specific mandates on conflict resolution, dispute management, arbitration and reconciliation to prevent signals transition into a major conflict and amplifying public sensitisation and awareness on the newly promulgated inheritance law for full implementation to ensure gender justice and equality.