Monthly Archives: March 2017

16, March 2017

Twelve points for the New African Union Commission Chairperson ⁰

Moussa Faki Mahamat, the new chair of the African Union Commission (AUC), takes office in mid-March as the continent faces its worst spate of humanitarian crises since the 1990s. The most alarming is in the Lake Chad basin where more than eleven million people need emergency aid. In Somalia, 6.2 million (almost half the population) face acute food shortages and in South Sudan, where the UN recently declared a famine, nearly 5 million are severely food insecure. The suffering is largely man-made: the effects of drought have been exacerbated by prolonged wars and mass displacement.

More promisingly, Gambia’s peaceful transition, negotiated by the Economic Community of West African States with AU support, is one of the steps toward democracy and rule of law being taken in much of the continent. Whether these gains can be multiplied across Africa depends on how well Mr Faki, Chad’s former foreign minister, will use the tools at his disposal to persuade member states to address the triggers and longer-term drivers of conflict: fraught electoral processes; leaders who refuse to leave office as scheduled; corrupt, authoritarian or repressive governments; population growth; joblessness and climate change. These same forces precipitate two other major continental challenges, migration and the threat from religious extremists and other violent non-state groups.

International Crisis Group

16, March 2017

Anglophone Crisis: Biya playing for time with Bilingual Commission ²

Southern Cameroon groups fighting for an independent state have reacted to the appointment of members into the so-called National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism in Cameroon by President Biya. The exiled leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium have appealed to Southern Cameroonians to isolate the Biya regime and its agents such as ministers, governors, SDOs and Dos.

The Consortium maintains the degree was a ploy for Biya to buy time and eventually stifle the people’s revolution. Prominent Southern Cameroonians contacted by our reporters have all observed that the government was unwilling to concede to any Southern Cameroons proposals for institutional changes to usher in genuine federalism. All what Mr. Biya and the CPDM was bent on doing, an operations manager of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium remarked, was to promote laws and policies that would continue to marginalized Anglophones and return the country to a one-party Francophone system.

Southern Cameroonians are now watching with concern the Biya’s Francophone Beti Ewondo government’s resolve to destroy the Anglophone identity by out rightly refusing the dialogue with the detained leaders of the Consortium and also rejecting the idea of federalism. The current Biya appointments of CPDM agents clarified a senior aide to the detained Chairman of the Consortium, Barrister Agbor Balla has not been welcomed by Southern Cameroonians and it is not any reliable means to defuse the political tension created by the Anglophone crisis.

The exiled leaders of the Consortium have warned Southern Cameroonians including CPDM political elites not to betray the struggle by accepting appointments from a man who has a track record of anti-Anglophone policies. The Consortium has uncovered a plan hatched by the Biya Francophone regime to destabilize Southern Cameroonians and have called on all Anglophones to resolutely fight against La Republique du Cameroun and its against the intrigues and malpractices of its cabinet ministers.

Citing the case of Southern Cameroonian detainees, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium exile leaders bashed the regime for gross violation of human rights in Southern Cameroon.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

15, March 2017

Anglophone Crisis: Breaking the stalemate ²

The Anglophone crisis that has rattled the government to its core seems to be a nightmare that will not go away anytime soon. The desperate government that has been accused by the country’s English-speaking minority of marginalization and total neglect of the English-speaking region has been scrambling for solutions to douse the fire that many believe could bring down the house of cards that has resisted for well over five decades. Different strategies and policy options have been employed to wean the determined people of Southern Cameroons from their decision to question the government’s commitment to the notion of national integration. The crisis was triggered by Anglophone lawyers who, prior to their demonstration in November 2016, had in several memoranda to the minister of justice, called for the creation of a Common Law Bar, a law school for Anglophones, a common law bench at the country’s Supreme Court and the translation of key legal documents into English. Faithful to its colonial oppression strategy, the government instead dispatched heavily armed policemen to read the riot act to these legal minds whose cardinal objective was to draw the attention of the public and international community to their sorry plight.

Far from producing the desired effect, the brutality that the lawyers suffered in the hands of the forces of law (lessness) and (dis)order instead emboldened the lawyers. They were later joined by Anglophone teachers who, themselves, had a long list of grievances that had not been addressed by the government for years. But the matter came to a head when students of the University of Buea, an Anglo-Saxon university, boycotted lectures and called on their authorities to repeal a CFAF 10,000 charge for any late payment of fees. The students had designed their strike to be peaceful, and instead of meeting the students to discuss their grievances, the university vice-chancellor, Prof. NalovaLyonga, instead ordered troops into the university to brutalize unarmed students who simply wanted to address their issues in a peaceful manner. The police did not only brutalize the students, they also obliged some of them to roll in raw sewage. Girls were raped and many students, some of whom did not even participate in the strike, were arrested and taken to unknown destinations. It is rumored that some of the students have died as a result of the torture and deplorable detention conditions. The government’s Kafkaesque intimidation tactics have unfortunately been counter-productive, as the strike has spread to all Anglophone cities and the entire region has been radicalized. Farmers, bricklayer, mechanics, traders, students and other socio-professional groups have all happily joined the strike and their participation in ghost town operations called by the outlawed Consortium, an umbrella organization for all Anglophone organizations fighting against the English-speaking region’s marginalization, has been amazing.

As the crisis continued to play out and spread throughout the region, the government felt it was time to change strategy. Ferocious brutality had failed to dissuade the people and their leaders. Money had to come in. The carrot and stick approach had to be used to nip the revolution in the bud. The country’s government has always used money to buy over its opponents, especially in the early nineties when there were calls for multiparty democracy in Cameroon and, in this case, it thought money could cause the ringleaders of the revolution to flip. But the government, made up of old and tired personalities who have been in the political scene for more than 50 years, simply failed to have a good read of the situation. There were lots of players in the game. The old political dispensation had hurt many people, sending thousands of Anglophones into exile. These people have been very bitter and will stop at nothing to upset the current political arrangement that has favored a few to the detriment of the majority.

Whatever the outcome of this unfortunate situation, the Anglophone Diaspora has become a formidable political force in Cameroon, albeit from a distance. The Anglophone Diaspora, born out of marginalization, has driven the revolution and has the resources to cause the government to lose sleep for many more months. It jumped into the fray to take over the leadership of the revolution, especially when the government made the grave error of arresting Consortium leaders and Paul Ayah, a prominent Supreme Court judge of Anglophone extraction. The Anglophone Diaspora, numbering about one million, with huge concentrations in the United States, Nigeria, South Africa, Canada and United Kingdom, has been instrumental in reducing government authority in the English-speaking region and cutting down government ministers to normal human proportions. The Diaspora is rich and it includes some of the finest professionals the country can boast of. Engineers, translators, interpreters, economists, journalists, medical doctors, nurses, computer scientists and finance experts, many of whom are responsible for the wellbeing of their families back home. They are the ones paying the piper, so they are clearly calling the tune. They are therefore capable of making the region ungovernable. The events of the last three months stand to testify to this assertion.

The challenge is enormous and new to the government. Its strategies have not produced the desired effect. Despite missions by the prime minister and the Anglophone elite to the English-speaking region to talk parents into letting their children go to school, schools in West Cameroon are currently not in session. The heavy deployment of troops in West Cameroon has not helped matters. Things have taken a turn for the worse as even children now understand that the government has never been there for them. Anglophones are clearly sick and tired of a system that has reduced them to second-class citizens. Their way of life has been trampled upon and the arrogance of Francophone administrators in the Anglophone zone has embittered many English-speaking Cameroonians who are now calling for a restoration of statehood. Of more annoyance is the fact that even corporations in Anglophone Cameroon are being headed by Francophones and many arrogantly refuse to speak English, a language understood by the local population. Many Anglophones point to the national oil refinery known by its French acronym as SONARA located in Limbe, the Southwest region’s port city, and whose staff is predominantly Francophone. While the locals are living in grinding poverty, Francophones are earning astronomical salaries from the refinery and treating the locals with disdain. The government has a hot potatoes on its hands. Addressing these grievances is key to the restoration of confidence and the people have lost trust in a government that hardly keeps its own promises.

However, all hopes are not lost. Though Anglophones have upgraded their demand for a federal system to a restoration of statehood, there is still room for dialogue if the government stops playing possum. The government knows why Anglophones are threatening to walk away from the union that was put together in 1972. The predominantly Francophone government in Yaoundé has not complied with the terms of the Fumban Agreement that was signed in 1972. It has not even lived up to the glorious expectations of the English-speaking minority which voluntarily opted to join French-speaking Cameroon in a free and fair referendum. The people’s grievances are many and challenging, but they could be easily addressed if both parties go to the negotiating table with a high dose of honesty and seriousness.

However, for any talks to take place, the government must show a lot of goodwill. Consortium leaders as well as all those arrested as a result of the revolution must be released as demanded by Anglophones. The current situation is unhealthy and government must understand it can no longer reinstate the status quo ante. The government must recognize that Consortium leaders are the only people mandated by the English-speaking minority to negotiate on its behalf, although these leaders have been charged with terrorism and chaos, charges trumped up to intimidate the English-speaking population of Cameroon. This demand is not hard to meet as many of those detained were not arrested according to the law. Many were simply kidnapped and others have been held in odious detention conditions. It should be recalled that the law was made for man and not man for the law. Sticking to the law in this context simply implies that the government wants the current situation to last for a long time and this is not healthy for a country whose economy has been caught in the throes of a devastating economic crisis. Like Anglophone leaders, the government has to walk away from its position that is rooted in intimidation and violence. The Anglophone region should also be demilitarized and Internet connection restored. Many Anglophones hold that it is preposterous for their children to return to schools that have been militarized and do not have Internet connection. For those demands that can only be addressed over the long term, the government and Anglophone leaders must agree on clear timelines. The dialogue should be moderated by a third neutral party such as the United Nations and/or the African Union. Anglophone leaders must also show a high degree of flexibility. They must understand that all their demands cannot be met in the short term. The country’s government can start using the clergy to set the stage for such dialogue and the Diaspora should be included in the discussions. It is impossible to circumvent the Anglophone Diaspora as it has played a key role in the conflict that has left the government helpless and powerless. If these steps are taken, the stalemate could be defused and Cameroonians will once more work together and look to the future as a strong and united people living happily in a one, indivisible country.

Dr Joachim Arrey

Contributing Editor

Cameroon Concord News Group

About the Author: The author of this piece is a keen observer of Cameroon’s political and economic landscape. He has published extensively on the country’s political and economic development, especially in the early 90s when the wind of change was blowing across the African continent. He has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is also a trained translator and holds a Ph.D.

15, March 2017

Anglophone Crisis: Synod Clerk says arrests, torture, high handedness and threats to life won’t solve the problem ⁰

The Synod Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, Rev Babila Fochang has said that university students cannot go back to school and study smoothly without internet in this present generation. In his recent homily, the Right Rev. Babila Fochang observed that the Church as a body will never play games with the future of children nor can tell lies in the face of the current crisis that has rocked the two English speaking regions of the country.

The Presbyterian Church leader pointed out that Anglophone Christian churches in Cameroon have been under serious attack with some Anglophone members of government making lame and ridiculous claims that the churches are playing Pontus Pilate role in the on-going Southern Cameroons uprising. The Man of God noted that some church leaders are under surveillance with threats of arrests while pastors have been bullied to say all is well in West Cameroon.

Revered Babila Fochang declared, “Now that media houses have been threatened that they will be shut down if they mention anything concerning what is going on, the prophetic voices remains the only outlet of truth.” He reminded the laity of the threat on Jeremiah’s life because he prophesied the word of the Lord just as the Lord asked him to and added that Jeremiah told them he had only spoken what he was asked to by the Lord. Like Jeremiah the true prophetic voice can only say, “…Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the Lord your God… As for me, I am in your hands, do with me whatever you think is good and right.”

“My people, history have demonstrated that killing of prophets and human rights activists have never been the solution to suppress truth! Let us face issues and deal with them upfront! Arrests, torture, high handedness and threats to life won’t solve our problems. Don’t treat fellow humans as animals! You can’t expect university students to go to school and function smoothly without internet! Not in this generation! God forbid this inhuman treatment and violation of human rights! Fear God and allow good citizens to enjoy their just rights; and by so doing we would all escape the wrath of God.”

Cameroun Info.Net

15, March 2017

Bamenda: Corrupt Government Delegate attacks the Consortium ⁵

The frustrated and corrupt Government Delegate to the Bamenda City Council, Vincent NDUMU NJI, has urged traders in Bamenda major markets not to respect ghost town days but to go about their usual activities. The man who attempted to claim a building at T-Junction belonging to a late business tycoon, made the call on Tuesday March 14, 2017 at the City Council hall during a crisis meeting held to discuss the way forward after a fire incident ravaged close to 60 shops in the market.

The loud sounding nothing CPDM militant opined that ghost town was helping to paralyze activities of traders than the killings, rapes and militarization of the Bamenda province of Southern Cameroons. Vincent Ndumu sounded like his Buea counterpart, Patrick Ekema by appealing to all traders to send their children to school and forget about school boycott.

Without any security backing from the Francophone dominated police establishment in Bamenda, Mr. Ndumu reiterated that the fire incident was perpetrated by those people who do not want children to go back to school. His suspicion he claimed was based on tracks which were reportedly circulated Monday warning traders who continue to boycott ghost town days.

In an attack on the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium that has legitimate authority in Southern Cameroons, Vincent NDUMU stated that people should not be obeying leaders they cannot see. He added that if the Government had succeeded to take Bakassi from Nigeria, defeat Boko Haram, then it would be able to track down perpetrators of the burnings in Bamenda.

During the enlarged meeting with victims of the fire incident and market Masters of some major markets, Vincent NDUMU NJI promised that the burnt shops will be reconstructed within three months and that the new ones will be modernized.

The fire incident occurred early Tuesday ravaging about 60 shops, it was only contained by army rescue unit and police who exploited water Canons that were previously used on innocent students at the University of Bamenda. The Bamenda so-called government delegate avoided to comment about traders whose children have been abducted and ferried to unknown destination in La Republique du Cameroun.

By Rita Akana with files from CIN

15, March 2017

Federation (Assimilation) or Restoration? ¹

The assimilation of Ambazonia (Southern Cameroons) into Cameroun Republic by France has been the strategy all along. The two state federation that the people of the then Southern Cameroons voted for in the plebiscite that brought the two together has never been in consideration. But assimilation has failed, and separation and restoration of an independent Ambazonia state remains the only resolution to the current crisis with Cameroun Republic.

In a <a href=”http://bareta.press/southern-cameroons-struggle-symptoms-cause-cure”> previous piece</a>, I noted that prior to the infamous Foumban Conference of 1961, French authorities, as was revealed through the pen of one Pierre Messmer(Colonial Administrator in Africa: 1952 -1956; Governor General of Cameroun, 1956,French Minister of Armies: 1960–1969, French Minister of State, Minister of Departments and Overseas Territories: 1971–1972, French Prime Minister: 1972–1974),viewed the then Southern Cameroons as a territory ripe for annexation. It is therefore only logical that as night follows day, pro-active and intensive assimilation had to ensue.

Confidential memoranda such as the recently published directive to the French Consul, Mr. Michel Morel, based in Buea and dated August, 1967 evinces the strategy of colonial assimilation. And the native inhabitants and indigenes of Ambazonia are living witnesses to the violence of the brutal tactics of this French directed strategy.

However, after half a century of the employment of relentlessly dehumanizing methods to achieve this goal, Yaoundé, under the colonial tutelage of Paris obviously remains wanting. All of the ‘Grandes Écolesà l’Africaine,’ EMIA, ENAM, IRIC etc., conceived and customized for the tropical periphery in order to mold the loyal and French-fried administrative cadres to serve the Parisian metropolis, have not been able to effectively wipe out that which makes the people of Ambazonia distinct.

Today, these manufactured elites, formatted to deceive, seduce and corrupt are void of any legitimacy in the eyes of those they sought to pacify. The masses have seen them for what they were manufactured and programmed to be: privileged slaves who represent an effete band of self-flagellating empty suits, some of whom have desperately resorted to appeals of base bigotry.

In this enduring crisis, the French traditional instinct on behalf of their Vichy colony, Cameroun Republic, was one of annexation and assimilation while those of the people of the then Southern Cameroons was one of a union with two federated states of equal status. The reasons for failure in co-habitation between these two territories, these two states, these two peoples, are due to the irreconcilable value systems, perspectives of governance and a worldview, which were rooted in, and have rooted distinct traditions. Both peoples being Africans negates not this reality.

Cameroun Republic and Ambazonia have an international boundary not being demarcated today. This boundary makes it clear that they are two separate and distinct countries; it is a matter of genetic geopolitics, which is immutable. It is a similar recognition and pragmatism that has seen the creation of newer states in the European Union in the last generation. Not all peoples are meant to co-habit within the same political and administrative space.

Confronted with unknotting a French mindset that have them tied in colonial bondage, Ambazonians today should not be naïve. But what exactly is this mindset? In Charles Cogan’s study and analysis of the French political tradition and worldview (French Negotiating Behavior: Dealing with La Grande Nation), he quotes Hubert Védrine, a former French Foreign Minister:

“’The ultra-liberal market economy, mistrust of the state, individualism removed from the Republican tradition, the inevitable reinforcement of the universal and ‘indispensable’ role of the United States, common law, the English Language, Anglo-Saxon norms…”

Védrine contrasted this with the French tradition: “Historically, French identity has been defined by and built upon a strong central state, first monarchial, and then republican. It was painstakingly built by jurists and based on the idea that France had a specific political, legal, and cultural role to play in the world” (Emphasis mine).

Cogan called it a “sweeping philippic on globalization.”

Védrine’s philippic reveals the entrenched French mindset and worldview that is at once intensely and instinctively anti Anglo-Saxon and for the hyper-centralization of power and state authority. It is steeped in hundreds if not thousands of years of French authoritarian tradition: “first monarchial, and then republican.”

This is the immutable mindset of the infantilized governing elite in Yaoundé, vetted and approved by the Cellule Africaine of the Élysée Palace in Paris. This is the mindset that allows for a French-fried African to boldly proclaim to fellow Africans that they are cubes of sugar meant for dissolution.

This is the mindset that allows for a French-fried African to tell a representative of his people, “Qu’est-ce que vous allez faire?” in response to the expression of legitimate grievances.

This is the mindset that enables the “epithet” of “Biafra” when such insanity is challenged. This is mindset that allows for our people to be kidnapped and transported across an international boundary for calling for federation.

For those who continue to preach “federation” with Yaoundé as opposed to restoration in Buea at the footsteps of Mount Fako, they are asking Ambazonians to accept unadulterated assimilation even after all the violence of public beatings, kidnappings, rapes and murder of their fellow citizens.

There exists no federal concept of governance in the French tradition and view of political administration. Asking for a federation with a state under the colonial control of France and its policy of monetary slavery, is, to paraphrase Richard Joseph in Gaullist Africa, to accept the principle of free intercourse between wolves and sheep.

Fellow Ambazonians, “you get from this life what you have the courage to ask for.”

Terrence B. Wakai

15, March 2017

Cameroun Football: FECAFOOT suspends three referees ¹

The Secretary General of the Cameroon Football Federation, FECAFOOT has suspended indefinitely the officials of the match that opposed Tonnere kalara club (Tkc) and Botafogo of Douala from all football activities. The encounter was played at the Military Stadium in Yaoundé over the week end.

The three Cameroonian referees suspended by the Cameroon football governing body are central referee Chewou Amadou and his two assistants, Olinga Fandjieng and Ngwane Léonard. The fourth official Ekoumou Jeanne is also expected to be given a ban.

Blaise Moussa in a statement observed that the men in black violated the measures put in place by the administrative authority which according to FECAFOOT was a serious breach of the ethics of sport and the ethical obligations, provided for by the regulations in force.

The Senior Divisional Officer for Mfoundi Division in Yaoundé had made public a prefectural order preventing TKC from hosting any activity on its territory.

By Rita Akana

15, March 2017

Ethiopia: Death toll from landslide rises to 82 ⁰

The death toll from a landslide at Ethiopia’s largest rubbish dump reached 82 on Tuesday as the country’s parliament declared three days of national mourning, a government minister said. Communications Minister Negeri Lencho said, rescuers are still searching for survivors and victims’ bodies.

Part of the largest hill at the Koshe rubbish dump in the capital Addis Ababa gave way on Saturday, swallowing up a slum that had been built on the trash and burying families alive in their homes. Most of the dead are women and children. Rescuers on Tuesday pulled a woman alive from the rubble more than two days after the disaster, said Dagmawit Moges, a spokeswoman for the Addis Ababa city administration. Starting Wednesday, flags in Ethiopia will fly at half-mast as the country observes three days of mourning for the victims.

The Koshe landfill has for more than 40 years been the main garbage dump for Addis Ababa. Hundreds of people lived at the landfill on the outskirts of the capital, collecting recyclables trucked in from neighborhoods around the city of about four million people. The government tried last year to close the dump and move it to a different location, but opposition from residents at the new site forced the authorities to back down.

Residents blamed the landslide on the construction of a new biogas facility on top of the rubbish. Lencho rejected that claim, saying slum dwellers had caused the collapse by digging into the soil to find rubbish to sell.

Presstv

14, March 2017

Nigeria: Reform of Internal Security System ⁰

Demands for increased operational effectiveness in internal security operations in Nigeria has grown in the past decade due to increasing level of public perception of insecurity. Growing terror campaign since 2010 has further worsened calls for overhaul and restructuring in Nigerian Policing and Law enforcement system. Several reforms later, Nigerian security environment is now populated by Pretoria of security agencies performing overlapping functions, thereby leading to confusions and chaos.

As internal security agencies has been bundled under the ministry of interior, under a seasoned security professional for the first time in the history of the country, the whole world awaits the institution of a well-orchestrated Programme for thorough reform of this sector.

Three major issues –aside from normal security problem any state surfers from- challenges law enforcement operations in Nigeria today; the Niger Delta militants operation, the Fulani Herdsmen attacks and the Boko Haram terrorism in Northeast Nigeria. Unfortunately, policing authorities in Nigeria has always been bedeviled with high level of public mistrust. Policing can only succeed if the people could relate with local law enforcement institutions with some amount of trust.

To improve policing operations in Nigeria the Ministry of Interior could:

Improve the Police to Population Ratio: The ratio of police to population in Nigeria is clearly below international average. The Nigeria Police Force has about 390,000 and the NSCDC has about 80,000 officers and men, direct policing in Nigeria is expectedly performed by less than 500,000 officers in a country of about 180,000,000 million people, an average of 1 policeman securing 400 people. This number though higher than the UN basic average would have been sufficed, but the use of police officers as; security guards for the elites and government functionaries, escorts for banks and money movements, admin and other non-operational functions. To top this there are no direct operational supports between the NPF and the NSCDC leading to duplication of functions.

Integration of Policing Units: There exists need for a formal integration of NPF and NSCDC functions towards achieving a better focus in policing operations. As both organizations enjoys constitutional backing, merging them might not be the right solution, but a formal management of functions to reduce current rivalry could help in improvement of the deliverables in the short run.

Deployment: Security operative deployments are currently done without any proper interagency collaboration. This lack of institutional cooperation is reflected on the field as joint operations have severally turned to turf war while the project suffers. There has been several calls by practitioners for the setting up of a committee on Internal security, comprising of all Heads of security agencies operating in the Nigerian Homeland and an office of Head of Internal Security (HIS) which should constitutionally be the Inspector-General of Police. The roles of this office should include among other things:
Joint internal security planning and operational roles delimitation during joint ops
Information and intelligence sharing and analysis
Policy formulation and harmonization
Act as central operation command in time of national crises
Draw up joint internal security development Programme for the MOI in sequence with overall needs of all agencies

Recruitment: The process of security personnel recruitment in the country is too politicized. Hence mediocrity is allowed under the guise of catering to favored candidates. To improve this process recruitment of security personnel should be done with all professional conduct. All recruitment process should be supervised by the MOI to reduce influence peddling.

Patrols: Security operatives in Nigeria are mostly reactive and never proactive. This was due to operational environment and no personal ties with the people there. Policing can only survive when the people are part of its operations. The lack of synergy between policing authorities and the people was the basis of failure of security in all areas of Nigeria. Current vehicular patrol system with arms never endears the security personnel to the people. The foot patrol system is still used globally and is reputed to bring cohesion between security personnel and the public.

Formal Policy Management Body: Lack of a formal body to manage internal security in Nigeria. NPF, NSCDC, NIS, DSS, NPS and other bodies are operating individually in securing Nigerian Homeland without a direct policy making, monitoring and evaluating and supervisory management body. Nigerian Defense is better managed through the office of the Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) unifying and managing the three arms of defense. Lack of centralized body has occasioned several mishaps in the homeland security operations.

Creation of the office of the Director of Homeland Security to manage the affairs of internal security reporting to the Minister of Interior. The DHS federal operations may compose of all policing heads in the country and should meet weekly to analyze and plan security operations in Nigeria. At state levels, DHS could discus policies made at federal level and adapt to suit local operations; dividing operational duties according to personnel capabilities to agencies and setting basic monitoring and evaluation deliverables for all allotted tasks. The DHS in states could compose of all heads of law enforcement units in each state.

Internal Affairs Office: Lack of independent supervisory body for internal security has led to several cases of abuse of power by security personnel in and out of duty. Set up department of internal affairs to monitor, supervise and recommend disciplinary measures for officers’ infringements and abuse of power and process. This may increase the operational efficiency of the security personnel and at the same time increase public supports for the security institution.

Introduction of a Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) with responsibility for supervising and monitoring policing operations in Nigeria will improve local perception of the forces and efficiency of the policing agents. The DIA could be designed to be independent of current policing organisation and based in the MOI with offices in all states of the federation. This department could be in state and federal levels.

Clear Definition of Roles: Overlapping functions of several agencies needed to be redefined. The Nigerian public is sometimes confused on whom to defer to on security issues. The MOI may need to rearrange functions of agencies and publish to guide the agents and the public on roles, duties and responsibilities of all agencies to clear all ambiguities.

The MOI may control security information decimation to reduce ongoing security mediatization in the country. The need to showcase operational abilities of agencies above others has occasioned this unrelenting performance for media camera by all agencies. Security information that might need proper vetting are divulged by agencies to score points in the media. The public needed to be informed but there has to be a process for doing this.

Monitoring and Evaluation: Who really guards the guardians? Power corrupt has been the bane of public supports for policing in Nigeria. There are no direct authority managing policing operations in Nigeria. This lack has been blamed for increasing lack of proper services delivery in this sector. There should exist an independent body charged with overseeing the operations of law enforcement agencies in Nigeria.

Legal Development: The MOI could sponsor better law enforcement laws to bring policing into the next generation in Nigeria. Nigeria Criminal Code is still in the last generation and needed proper development to meet 21st century policing challenges.

Training and Retraining: To meet the challenges of the future, there is need for training and retraining of current policing personnel. There exists need for a reorientation of the psyche of an average security operative in Nigeria. Aside from lack of appropriate level of force in operation and the need to respect the suspect, security men are known to become judge and accusers at the same time while on duty. There is need for attitudinal and operational development training and retraining for them. The MOI could design and supervise major training for the development of personnel in policing agencies to achieve stated goals.

Promotion, postings and welfare: All internal security agencies are bedeviled with unethical favoritism in promotions, postings and welfare distribution in the past twelve years. This has led to high incidence of indifference and indiscipline in the services. This challenge has to be revised towards improving operational efficiencies and incentive to perform. There is need for a review of personnel promotions in the past ten years towards achieving proper justice in the service. The practice in which favored officers without any special performance or abilities are promoted several rungs above their colleagues and seniors should be revised and remediate to ensure justice and equity in the system.

Recognize and Integrate Informal Policing Organizations: Policing in Nigeria currently encompasses the formal and informal sectors. Increase reliance of the public on informal policing organization in day-to-day security needs is a pointer to the importance of this sector in Nigerian internal security operation. There is need for formal regularization and inclusion of the informal sector in Nigerian security planning and operations.

Regularization of this sector under the MOI might improve its standardization and improve services delivery within the sector. The MOI could undertake the certification of proficiency and professionalization of corporate bodies and professionals in the industry. Proper standards will ensure better trusts in this growing industry.

Above all, the Nigerian Homeland need a well-structured security operation with evaluable achievement over time. The MOI could use this opportunity to instill professionalism in local security operations through formal and informal reorganization and upgrade of current system. The obvious low productivity in this sector is clearly a function of uncleared vision, obvious lack of direction; purpose; supervision; and lack of coordinated cooperating system by all agencies involved.

There are many more process that might improve current standard, this was not a direct indictment of the internal security system in Nigeria, yet we all surmised, there exists need to tinker with current operations towards achieving a better value chain in our security system.

Towards achieving this, proper identification of the challenges of these agencies has to be elucidated, properly itemized and proffer workable solutions to before we could start shouting ‘Uhuru” This is the onerous task before the MOI and the time for this to be done is now.

By Don Michael Adeniji

Senior Contributing Editor

Cameroon Concord News Group

14, March 2017

Anglophone Crisis: Fire ravages Bamenda Food Market ⁰

Some 10 shops at the Bamenda Food market in Southern Cameroons have been reduced to ashes following a fire incident which occurred early Tuesday March 14, 2017. Cameroun Info.Net reported that bags of rice, ‘garri’, sugar, soap and other goods vanished in the flames whose origin is yet to be determined by security agents.

Locals around the Food Market say they saw an unusual light in the market early Tuesday by 2am and suspected it was a fire. Upon their arrival, the inferno had already gone wild. Buckets of sand and other items used to stop the flames proofed futile. Fire fighters from the Rapid Intervention Battalion Unit only succeeded to put off the flames by 6am.

Traders are suspecting that it was an action by some disgruntled Southern Cameroons activists who had circulated tracks warning the occupants of the Food Market not to continue to trade on ghost town days. The Senior Divisional Officer for Mezam, Songo Pierre and the North West regional Police boss were present early Tuesday to take stock of what happened. Investigations have been opened.