The North Eastern, Niger Delta and Middle Belt regions of Nigeria have been witnessing several conflicts and fatalities in recent times. These include terrorism, militancy and the crisis between herdsmen & their host, respectively. In the light of this, on Monday, 28 November, CODE participated in the Peace and Security Working Group (PSWG) Meeting hosted by the Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme (NSRP). The PSWG is a platform for peace and security analysis, advocacy, coordination and capacity building. The platform is made up of several Civil Society Actors, international donors/agencies, and foreign embassies.

During the meeting, organizations such as Centre for Democracy & Development, NSRP,  Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta etc. gave updates on their current activities in ensuring peace and security in the country. CODE on its part intimated the participants of its peace and security works in two areas: 1). Comparative electoral processes research and activities, so as to promote the use of information technology in electioneering in order to reduce violence during elections. CODE observed the United States Presidential Election and was able to draw lessons from the exercise which could be employed in Nigeria to ensure improved electoral processes and violence reduction. CODE was also asked to make a presentation in the next PSWG meeting in January, 2017 on the observation and experiences regarding this. 2). CODE has a campaign on ensuring transparency and accountability in the implementation of humanitarian funds in the North Eastern (NE) part of the country. In this light, CODE is tracking the governmental implementation of N53 billion provided by international donors for the rehabilitation of the NE zone.

During the meeting, a new name, Peace and Security Network (PSN) was also recommended for PSWG. This is for perfect representation of the mandate of the coordination group. PSN is indeed an important platform for stakeholderial coordination on peace and security activities and strategies to prevent & manage conflicts around the country. Its’ our hope that the platform implements its strategies to ensure political stability in the country so as for a favorable environment for economic activities and Foreign Direct Investment attraction.

So have you heard about the Colorado Springs? Our team members – Emmanuel Njoku and Babatunde Adegoke are there to observe the United States Presidential Elections in Colorado, on the auspices of Ford Foundation, Independent Republican Institute and the Institute of International Education. On November 7, 2016, They met the Chairman and CEO of El Pomar Foundation – William J. Hybl and his team of very cool people hosted them to a luncheon alongside Secretary of State of Colorado – Wayne Williams, and some wonderful young observers from South Africa, Botswana and Namibia at the prestigious Penrose House in Colorado Springs, where they discussed Leadership, Democracy, Governance and the November 8, 2016, presidential elections and processes that have been put in place to ensure that the polls is credible and trusted by all.

From right, Colorado Secretary of State, Emmanuel Njoku, Tunde Adegoke and a state representative during a meeting on November 4 at the Broadway

Interestingly, they were informed that the State of Colorado has about 3.5million registered voters, and about 2.6million of these people are expected to vote, of which 2 million of these votes have already been cast, which simply means that just about 600,000 persons will be voting during the elections today across the 64 Counties(LGA) of Colorado. So that you know, you can cast your vote 21 days before the real election day!

This early voting practised in the state of Colorado will completely eliminate all the pressure that usually will be witnessed on a typical election day. This brings me back to Nigeria, where elections are held in one day, and the economy of the whole country is put to a halt, due to the elections. Perhaps, the Independent National Electoral commission (INEC) should take a cue, and leverage technology to make voting possible even before the election day.

Group picture of African Observers meeting with the Secretary of State of Colorado at the El Pomar Foundation

That sounds like a pinch of salt, right? if INEC is to achieve this feat, it must yield to a whole change management system which should be initiated by the leadership of INEC. Again, I will not subscribe to lack of funds as an excuse, INEC only needs few dedicated experts  that can always look up to the leadership for unflinching support in providing a methodology and system that allows for early voting. Unfortunately, I just remembered, INEC is still struggling with the registration of voters like myself, while you can register on the day of elections in the state of Colorado – See you in 2019!

 

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Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) and CODE with support from Stanford University Center on Democracy, Development and Rule of Law have created this Real-Time (Web-Based Map) Situation Awareness Platform (PoliceMonitor.ng) to enable the general public report police human rights abuses in their environment through various social media platforms. Police abuses include arbitrary arrests, unlawful detention, extortion, police brutality, torture, extrajudicial killings, rape and sexual misconduct, and other acts of police abuse and misconduct. We also mean to use this platform to connect our works with the Nigeria Police and organizations working around human rights issues in Nigeria.

Human rights abuse by the Nigeria Police on citizens in Nigeria between July and August 2016

PoliceMonitor is civil society driven and compliment the NPF’s Complaints Response Unit (CRU). Relative to previous complaints mechanisms, the NPF-CRU represents a step forward in police complaints and discipline management and accountability. However, the saying that the police cannot effectively police itself remains a self-evident truth. Like all police internal control systems, the CRU has not been as efficient in operations and satisfactory in results as was hoped. There is, therefore, the need for an independent, external, citizen-driven complaints mechanism.  It is hoped that the PoliceMonitorNG will compliment the NPF-CRU and other police internal control mechanisms and play the role of an alternative, external and independent citizens’ platform to monitor and report police abuses in Nigeria and to take timely action to ensure justice for victims and accountability by perpetrators.

In the first two months of the launch of this platform, – July and August a total of 34 complaints/reports were documented from 600 pages of Whatsapp messages.

Kindly visit policemonitor.ng to view all reports, and if you have comments and suggestions, do not hesitate to let us know via our comment box below.