Civil society activists across west Africa have promised to work with governments across the region to combat the scourge of violent conflicts and terrorism.
The activists made the pledge at the end of a training programme organized by the Altus Global Alliance and the CLEEN Foundation to assist governments in checking rising cases of violent conflicts in the sub-region.
The five day capacity building, according to Kemi Okenyodo, the Director of Altus/CLEEN Foundation, was designed for civil society activists to respond to the rising trend of violent conflicts and its attendant threats to regional security and security sector governance within the sub-region.
Okenyodo said: “Currently, the sub-region still presents singular combination of some of the poorest states in the world with widespread security challenges in the form of recurring violent conflicts (Niger, Chad, Mali, Guinea), long-standing authoritarian regimes (Gambia, Burkina Faso and Guinea) and several types of illegal activities including proliferation of small weapons (Niger, Chad, Nigeria, Liberia, Mali and Sierra Leone), terrorism, trafficking in persons, money laundering and drug trafficking (Nigeria, Togo, Equatorial Guinea and Mali) which thrive on the conflict situations, making it more challenging to address. As part of efforts to increase civil society involvement, oversight and monitoring of security sector governance across the sub-region; this training is developed to provide tools for monitoring and advocacy on governance of security for civil society groups and NGOs in West Africa”
Participants at the training comprised of program officers and other senior personnel from civil society groups involved in conflict management, human rights advocacy, conflicts and violence prevention, security sector governance reform and demilitarization in Africa.
Dr. Abdul Hussaini, the Country Director, Action Aid Nigeria and a facilitator at the event, urged the government to take civil society organizations seriously.
“Civil society organizations have a role to play in this insecurity we experiencing and if the country will overcome the present security situation, the government will have to reform the security sector and the agencies that are responsible for security in the country must become accountable and democratic as well as provide space for the civil society organizations to function,” Dr Hussaini said. “It is a big opportunity lost for government not to recognize the civil society organization as this would have been a way of accessing alternative intelligence and issues the government can use to address the insecurity in the country. The idea of clustering everybody as opposition is unhealthy and meanwhile, opposition is legitimate. The civil society organizations cannot be ignored or clustered as opposition party and the government needs to listen to civil society organization especially if they want to tackle the insecurity we have found ourselves”
A participant at the training programme, Allieu Vandi Koroma, from the Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law in Sierra Leone said the training is a boost to security and good governance in Africa.
“A lot of issues that have been raised were prior to now not in the mainstream activity we knew in the security sector reform,” he said. “My eyes have been opened and I will engage others in a debate based on what I have learnt. We learnt to work better with the police and other security agencies. Sierra Leone is a post war country and for us not to go back to that situation, then the government needs to have oversight function and this training has afforded me the prerequisite training to perform better as a civil rights activist.”
Another participant, George Abang Tawoh, the General Commissioner /Chief Executive Officer Association for the Protection of Women’s and Children’s Rights in Cameroon, said CSOs in Africa are critical to resolving conflicts in the continent.
“Security sector governance and security sector reform we have learnt during the training are novel ways of handling the security challenges in the Africa region especially in Cameroon where I come from,” he said. “We learnt the importance of the role the CSO can play in the security sector governance. Without the civil society groups, the countries will not be what they are today. We raise awareness on human rights abuses and others but civil society groups are hampered by finance”
Umar Farouk Mohammed, a civil rights activist from the Interfaith Mediation Centre Kaduna in Nigeria said he has been empowered to become a better activist.
“This is the first time I am coming across an organization training people on specific area on security sector governance,” he said. “Over the years, I have worked on issues of good governance and conflict management but this training is a comprehensive approach to tackling security entirely. It is wonderful the modules they used on human rights and gender and security governance. The component of security sector governance is new to me and I am empowered and happy I attended the training.”
