PBDF Peace and Security Online Lecture Series 6

0:00 we we can't collect money and not pay tax. So we had to register as a company since we are offering training and people have to we have to pay tax uh to to the government. So PBDC was registered in 2013 here in Nigeria and then we've been we've been doing uh our training since then. But last year December when we had our board meeting uh I personally actually encouraged the board that we should do because we have to continue our humanitarian programs and we uh can't do that on the platform of PBDC. So all our programs uh that we want to offer for free will now be done

0:46 on the platform of the foundation which is an NGO and that's the reason why we are using this platform for our online programs and some other programs that will come later. Uh I won't be the one moderating this program. The chairman of the PBDC forum uh the former controller general of immigration Mr. Muhammad Babandid will be moderating. Uh we have three resource persons um um mostly familiar and I also have my my former boss who I would have loved to introduce but since I'm not the moderator I will allow the moderator to do that. I don't know if Mr. Baband is now online so I can hand over to you

1:33 sir. Hello. Hello. Good morning. >> Good morning, sir. So, I've done I've done my introduction, sir. So, it's over to you. >> Okay. Uh please can you can you hear me and see me?

2:19 >> Yes, I can see you, sir. >> Uh >> and I can hear you. >> Okay. I hope everybody is see me on the platform. Good morning distinguished guests, speakers and participants, especially the executive director of our beloved peaceuilding development foundation. I would like to warmly welcome each and every one of you for this online lecture just to commemorate Nigerian's democracy day. June 12 remains a significant symbol in our national history. Hello. Can you hear me? Somebody's interrupting >> before you go. >> Okay, please

3:24 You can continue Mr. Chairman. I trust that today's discussion will be insightful, engaging and solution

4:11 oriented. I hope all the speakers will be looking for concrete solution to make our democracy better. We have three speakers today. Professor of Freedom Onoh, professor of political science from the only university which says is the only Nigerian university from United from University of Nigeria and Suka. Uh he is a professor of political science. He's going to speak on the topic democratic governance, civil engagement and social cohesion as a path to sustainable peace in Nigeria. Our second speaker is Major General Retire, but I know he's not Thai. G Wahab, former DG Niger Army

4:57 Resource Center. He's a soldier also a resource person. He's going to speak on an interesting topic related to the military also strengthening national security while protecting civil space and human rights in Nigeria's democracy. And I thank the military for not coming back again. for a very long time we have sustainable democratic system in Nigeria. Uh the third paper is going to be by Dr. Tonko Ahmed a veteran lecturer from cosult university and he's also a great lecturer in NIPS. Anybody who passes >> across uh this >> Hello. Uh each of the speakers each of the

5:42 speakers will speak for 30 although the system allow 40 minutes. Please speak for 30 minutes and uh we'll take two to three questions after each speak against the agenda so that we can make quickly. Uh I will give a takeaway and policy recommendation after there will be a closing remark from the ED but we intend to close 1:00. Please mute your speakers. Usually there's challenge when you have online presentation people leave their microphone on mute muted only unmute it when you asked to comment and please when you are commenting or contribution don't give a fresh lecture just few minutes so that we can be able to make progress. Thank you all much everybody for coming. I warmly welcome you to be

6:28 on this platform today. I thank uh peace building development foundation for organizing this lecture. At least it is part of keeping the civil society happy and engaged. In the olden days when June 12 comes it is a period for strike or >> but today it is going to be a period of lecture and reflection. Thank you so much for that. May I call on the first speaker, Professor Onaha to take the floor. Professor, the ball is in your court. Professor Onaha, are you there? >> Yeah, I am there. >> I will mute myself.

7:14 >> Okay, good. I am I'm just trying to to be able to share my slide. So I don't know I I I intend to use a slide so I don't know whether the slide is um >> it's okay and running. >> It's okay. >> It's okay professor you can continue. >> Okay. Thank you so very much and thank you the peace building uh foundation for opportunity for me to share my thoughts on a topic that I I think will remain um pickal in any discussion around uh Nigerian's experience particularly now that we have spent uh close to um 33 years celebrating or at least

8:01 commemorating uh the event of the June 12 u uh incident as Many of you know uh the June 12th election was considered to be one of the furious and fairest election in Nigeria. But it was unfortunate that it did not midwife you know a complete transition from military rule uh to a democratic governance. But overall many of us know that it laid that foundation uh for that collective civic engagement that ultimately culminated uh in the military going back to the barracks and handing over state power uh to their civilian counterparts in May 1999. And so for me to have been asked to make the keynote speak uh speech uh in an event such as this is quite humbling. Permit me to say also

8:47 that I'm going to speak through a slide. Uh hoping that sometimes again such a thing helps uh not only the listeners. We have come to age where it's very possible that some of the participants today we are not even born um when we had the June 12 1993 election. I'm sure I shared it with some of my students. So that provides me you know to just put a couple of slides uh to guide my thoughts. As the moderator have mentioned, I've been asked to take the next 30 minutes to speak to democratic governors uh civic engagement and um civic engagement and social cohesion as part way to sustainable peace uh in Nigeria. And I

9:32 think by way of commencement it's it's safe to say uh that the prevalence of peace and security if you wish to put it that way is at the heart of the progress and prosperity of any state and in the context of democracy I think you cannot overemphas emphasize that given the fact that if you check some of the outcome of the Afro barometer survey in last five years he clearly indicates that over 50% of Africans and I'm sure including including Nigerians because they were among those who were surveyed you know prefer the democracy and you know as the ultimate political arrangement and framework that can address some of the basic societal and human uh security challenges. So for Nigeria, I think um

10:17 being in a democratic setting is an aspiration that many people have longed to have. But whether democracy have been able to provide with that very safe, secure and peaceful environment has become a subject of serious concern. And of course you know that since the attainment of sustainable uh since the attainment of independence in in Nigeria you know the the the desire to have a very peaceful and prosperous nation has become almost elusive despite all efforts at national integration. Of course, many of us will talk about the very unfortunate incidents of the 1967 to 1970 uh Nigerian civil war and the destruction and dislocation he created not only in terms of the impact on human population but also in terms of a sense of national cohesion. And so with the

11:03 return to democracy in May 1999 that transition you know brought about consistent peaceful uh political handover of power and then more importantly you know it generated that renewed hope you know that the democratic setting will provide a more prosperous and um peaceful Nigeria. Has that happened and in what way can we talk about the importance of democratic governance uh you know setting the context uh for a peaceful society? such as ours. I think that as a student of political science who have been watching uh the political dynamics and trajectory of Nigeria, it is a it is safe to conclude that you know in the last two decades an overlapping incident of governance and security challenges has produced what I call the four negative

11:50 DS as far as Nigerian's political trajectory is concerned. Number one is that we have started seeing deepening of economic deprivation. uh even though we have been in over two decades of democracy, we are now seeing continuous social dislocation associated with the whole issue of deprivation and conflict and more importantly we have now seen you know increasing force population displacement and associated one death all in the context of the practice of democracy and I think is against this backdrop that of course recently about 3 days ago you know there was this major statement by some eminent Nigerians including the former INC chairman, Professor Huru Jagger, warning about the current state of Nigeria. In fact, in in

12:36 that statement, they released a I think it's paragraph 2 that clearly stress the fact that Nigeria stands at a dangerous crossroad where rising insecurity and alarming level of electoral manipulation by government and the weakening of democratic institution are converging into a national crisis that threatens uh the country's survival. If you want to reduce it a very simple sentence, I think the congaling of these factors have really come to question whether Nigeria is a peaceful society and to what extent is this society moving in the direction of prosperity and so it's against this backdrop that I would try you know to look at the whole idea of how democratic governance um civic engagement and then social cohesion is all interrelated and how they form a

13:21 microcosm you know for achieving a peaceful society. So the core argument I want to make this morning is to say that sustainable peace in Nigeria requires strengthening democratic institutions number one that will enable meaningful citizens participation and then leading us to more deliberate effort to build a cohesive society that is founded on the basis of justice, equity and shared national values. It's only if we understand this intricate connection between these three key dimensions that then our aspiration of attaining uh a successful and a peaceful community uh will be done. So to be able to really but trust this argument um I've just put forward I think it's very important that I run through some of the key concepts that are central to my presentation. I understand that people use some of these concepts uh but again it might mean

14:07 different thing to different persons in different context but let me just you know walk us through uh three of these concepts that are very fundamental starting with the concept of democratic governance and for me I think the governmentary governments does emphasize you know the exercise of public authority according to the principles of participation accountability transparency responsiveness and more important the rule of law and the protection of human rights one thing that is fundamental in the context and discourse of democratic governance is the fact that it goes beyond routine elections. So the idea that a nation is conducting election every four four years or any five years as the case may be does not really indicate that that country may be running democratic governance. I think we measure that level of democratic governance to the

14:53 extent that we can now see that there's institutional capacity of these democratic institutions to deliver public goods. top of the public luggage as you know is peace and security you know these institutions have the capacity to uphold justice and more importantly this institutions >> sorry prop sorry prop there is complaint that your screen is not moving uh I don't know you have only one screen or you have poweroint presented to share some of this your concept could be better if the screen is moving >> it's it's moving on my part is it not moving on your back >> it's not moving it's static I have received report online that it's not uh moving so >> oh my god Uh >> so is he moving now? Are they where I am now? So I am now on the concept. >> No we I we can see only the first side

15:39 of the screen for me. I can see democ we can see you now but remain your screen. Share your screen. You have share again. Share again. >> Let me share again. >> Yes. Good. Now guess good. Now you are moving now. Continue. Thank you. Let's let's just be sure. I've gone back to it's actually hanging. >> Okay. You can also share with us. Good. It's moving. Professor, >> I'VE COME BACK TO CO ARGUMENT. Is is are we on co argument now? >> Continue, professor. Yes, it's moving. >> It's on co argument now. >> Yes. Yes, it is. >> Okay. I've moved to democratic governance. So, are we on democratic governance now? >> Yes, sir. We're good. >> Okay. So, fantastic. SO THE POINT I'M TRYING to make about the subject of

16:25 democratic governance is that despite you know the continuous use of that and you know the enormous use of it and common use of it does not really conflict to the same thing as democracy especially because you could reduce democracy to the aspect of conduct of periodic elections but we begin to talk about democratic governance to the extent to which the political arrangement and system in that country is such that and allows those institutions to deliver on public goods and I'm emphasizing that top on the list of the public goods is security. That's number one public good. Any other one follows. Second is that those institutions have the capacity to uphold justice in real time you know to address grievances and more importantly is that the existence of such institutions it creates opportunity for citizens to influence decisions that affect their

17:10 life. So put together a democratic governance framework talks about you know participation and representation allowing the people to be part of the process of decision- making. It also creates the foundations for accountability and rule of law. everyone is equal before the law and then justice is served on the basis of the strength of what is involved and finally you deliver services and I said top on the list of the delivering of this service of course is the capacity to deliver um security but how can you achieve this you can also achieve this by looking at the extent to which that framework enables citizen uh civic engagement and by way of civic engagement uh we mean active citizen participation in public affairs to influence policies and to improve societal well-being. So the spectrum is

17:57 long. It can actually range from volunteering and community mobilization to as far as advocacy and as basically as voting on elections. So uh Hrix has really identified some of the key essential benefits of countries that have high level of civic engagement and that is what I just tried to use artificial intelligence to reproduce. There are about seven of them but I think C is is key. First is that it brings about improved relationship. Then it creates understanding between and among the community members. It also improve the community in terms of people volunteering to support development. And again that also bring about better quality of life and more importantly it also leads to better government because people can then begin to hold government uh to question. People can call out government when it's not living up to

18:43 expectation. But finally is the fact that civic engagement itself builds into um increase social cohesion because community members can begin to generate a common framework of trust, moral understanding and values that enable them to see themsel as one and also enable them achieve societal uh objectives. So that leads me to the concept of social cohesion. Uh I think it's one of the commonest concepts you can see in sociology and any institute talking about social studies. But you know there's no single definition of social cohesion. You know those who use that term but tend to at least agree uh that social cohesion will denote you know unity, solidarity and harmony within a society largely built on trust and generate a sense of belonging. You know that enable people to work together

19:30 across differences. The differences might be ethnic differences, could be religious differences, it could be communal differences, it could even be identity differences. But the most important thing is that it underscore you know the importance of such community having shared values and mutual trust are central to that. So a cohesive society of course is one has the capacity to manage uh diversity peacefully as we have in Nigeria and then reduce the likelihood of tensions and violence is built on three important elements. One sustains mutual trust. Two, brings about shared belonging and three spurs collective action you know to address problems that are common uh in the context of the community that we are referring once we were able to have this kind of cohesive community then the tendency is that you are likely going to

20:16 achieve sustainable peace. I don't want to spend so much time on peace. Uh but overall we talk about negative peace or positive peace in the main you know successive peace su sustainable peace is more interested in generating a framework that enables the community members to require and repair relationship when this relationship breakdown integrate every person's concerns or group and then nurture a sense of harmony through collective action. The result therefore is that you know peace become an aspiration but also an end product of the collective actions of a community. So you talk about the peace majorly about the absence of direct violence coming from all kinds of violence and then leading you to having

21:02 positive fees which address some of the structural issues that can cause exclusion that can cause marginalization and more importantly that then leads you to an environment where the collectives are much more interested in taking common action that produce shared prosperity. So when you have this kind of fragility in the society, the tendency therefore is that you have more peace and less tensions and conflict. >> Where are we now in Nigeria? As a matter of uh fact, I think it's important to quickly survey where we are in Nigeria before I move into discussing uh the whole issue about you know how democratic governance um civic engagement and social cohesion can lead to sustainable peace. Just to really

21:47 summarize because I need to manage time. Um many of us know that since independence, this country has actually experienced repeated political crisis. Top on the list we know is the whole problem of the Nigerian civil war which led to massive displacement uh population uh displacement in particular and a bit of a sense of social dislocation in terms of people connecting to Nigeria. We have the hope that the return to democracy in 1999 will bring about peaceful and prosperous Nigeria. But I'm sure that all of us who have been around this environment for the past um for the past two decades will completely agree with me that the return to democracy has been one that has been marred by election uh crisis, violence and fraud which in itself began

22:33 to erode the basis for democratic legitimacy and even began to strain uh the social fabric. More importantly is that in the last few years the country continues to face overlapping barriers associated with weakening democratic institutions, issues of electoral manipulation displacement social fragmentation and more importantly the fact that we have now seen you know unprecedented outbreak and persistence of violence in many states and I'm going to speak to some of those. As a result of that persistence of violence uh this country have now seen you know consistent issues around you know erosion of public trust uh in the state institutions. We have now seen deepening graviances along ethnic line and more importantly the polarization of Nigeria

23:19 along ethnic um religious and even and even ideological grounds. therefore making it almost difficult for us to talk about uh a peaceful society in 21st century uh in Nigeria. What I've tried to do was also to look at what could account for this in order to at least give a sense of the peacefulness of Nigeria. If you look at some of the global indicators that tries to check elements that you know touches on democracy, governance development, you will see that Nigeria is a poster child in terms of poor performance. Whether you are looking at the global peace index as I've tried you know to use this table before you to show the rankings of Nigeria from 2013 to 2025 or you are looking at the global terrorism index or the corruption perception index or even the human development index and finally

24:06 the state fragile index. Nigeria has been a poor performer across uh this global rankings. Clearly underscoring the persistence of governance deficits, clearly underscoring the outbreak of security, but more importantly showcasing the fact that in a country that is faced with institutional fragility and development stagnation as a result of some of the issues that I have mentioned. So the point is that we have this problem of you know poverty, unemployment, poor human capital development, state fragility mutually signaling that we are a country that is in crisis. How has that crisis played out for us to have a snapshot of the peacefulness of Nigeria at what you can see

24:52 the outbreak of terrorism alone you know had cleared at least over um 12,000 incidents in the country. Of course the crisis peaked in 2015 but we have also seen a decline of the incidence of such crisis but with a bit of minimal uptick uh from 2025. The result is that our country has become home to huge number of first displaced persons and even those that have moved beyond borders as refugees. So what are the factors I think that are responsible to this? I can isolate five critical factors you know that are select that that are responsible to the lack of peacefulness in Nigeria. Top on the list of course is governance deficit and weak state institutions arising from fraudulent elections connected to you

25:37 know pervasiveness of corruptions and weak institution which in itself has led to poor service delivery and in some cases limited or even nonpresence of state institutions across the long territory of Nigeria. We have also seen that as a result of poor governance uh there's always the prevalence of economic marginalization and exclusion high poverty and inequality growing youth unemployment cases and agitations of social marginalization and more importantly uh the persistence of economic hardship. These factors in themselves heightens people's vulnerability to be recruited by criminal and extremist group. connected to this is that as scarities as resources become so scarce and the Nigerian state or government fails to do that we have now seen heightened you know political and social fragmentation

26:24 people tend to identify with their ethnic and religious group more than the Nigerian state people also tend to see the politicization of identity particularly during election that in itself creates mistrust and that in itself also exhibit discrimination in the context of this it is not surprising therefore that Nigeria has now of course witnessed you a major incident of the outbreak and proliferation of amnestate actors. Some of it also associated with what we can call you know competition for scarce resources. What is it that it tells us in terms of the effort of the Nigerian state to deal with that? Well, we have seen diverse measures and responses by the Nigerian state. You will agree with me that as the situation heightens in terms of insecurity and instability, you know the default response of the Nigerian government

27:09 right from the era of President Obasan down to the current administration of President Tunugu. There has always been this prepundonderance reliance on the military, you know, to deal with this problem. And as a result, we have over 80% of the Nigerian armed forces, you know, being deployed to address some of these security issues in a bit, you know, to restore peace and security in Nigeria in the 36 states. That has brought about you know unprecedental escalation in terms of our defense spending. But what is much more concern is that as defense spending have increased, so also have insecurity therefore increased. meaning therefore that kinetic responses may not hold the bullet uh solution to the problem. We have now seen that between 2006 and 2021 we have lost over 169 Nigerians as a

27:56 result of violent death and our country host about 3.6 6 million internally displaced person. So what is the consequences for this as a nation and how does this touch on social? I think that the report by the African polling institute in 2022 unfortunately they've not followed up with that is the clearest measure for us to understand the direction of Nigeria in terms of peacefulness and in terms of division. When I read that report two things came out very clearly. The response of Nigeria showed clear disappointment and clear divisions. Nigeria are increasingly becoming you know very very unproud of their country as you can see in the statistics that I've done there in 2021 um uh 22% of those surveyed feel really disappointed with our country and then

28:42 that increase even by 3% in 2022 uh where about 57% feel they are not proud of the country what is it do we have to say about polarization this is where it becomes all the more purbin and challenging the result is that Nigerians also are beginning to lose faith not only in their country but we are becoming much more divided as you can see in the data there in 2021 84% of Nigeria feel that the country is much more divided than it were before in in the last four years and then in 2022 a bit of an uptake 3% again 87% of Nigerians feel that Nigeria is much more divided that is a clear indication that this is a country that is in crisis even though we are wobbling through

29:28 What is the clear consequences of what we have seen in terms of the problem of peacefulness? I want to mention two major interrelated consequences and this is where I will come in and sign off on democratic governance uh social cohesion and civic engagement. Number one is that Nigeria is gradually witnessing a process of civic disengagement. So rather than Nigerians becoming much more engaged with their civic responsibilities and the political process, Nigerians are gradually you know abstaining from participating in such an engagement. The clearest indication I can mention is even the level of voter turnout in the last pres last election where you had just about 26 um 72% of the registered voters coming out to vote in election. that that's the danger signal for the health

30:14 of our country in terms of democratic stability that in itself raises a question about the legitimacy of the institutions and more importantly that also underscore growing uh loss of confidence on this institution. The second point I want to make is where it is even much more dangerous for me which is the whole idea about Nigerians beginning to exit from the state and I take this from the artisticis of professor Hosa Oah you know who brought about the whole idea of exiting from the states and this is a situation whereby you know citizens will begin to withdraw loyalty and reliance on former state institutions because they perceive that these institutions are ineffective they are exclusionary they are unresponsive and more importantly they are unjust you know forc ing them now to seek refuge in their ethnic, religious, kinship, other

31:00 non-state arrangements that provide security. I don't know if many of you are following trends around the whole Nigerian's effort to boost its military strength and I think that the southeast is the clearest empirical manifestation of the exiting of the Nigerian state. I'm sure you may have seen it on the newspaper where majority of the youth in in the southeast have refused to join the military also even to join the police. That is a dangerous signal. It does suggest that the gen the recent populations are actually living in the territory called Nigeria. But psychologically, mentally and otherwise they're already exiting the Nigerian state. And that underscores the centrality and actually the fondity you know of that thesis by Hosa Osak about the exiting of the Nigerian state and that also points to issues around

31:45 disorder points to issues of unjustness points to issue on social division which means that we need to do more now begin to address that problem. How do we deal with this problem? I think we need to begin to reimagine and you know begin to rebuild the foundations of democracy and um and and collective uh civic engagement in Nigeria. Um how do this I believe that democratic governance will contribute to this first because it's going to enhance legitimacy. Second is that it's going to provide peaceful mechanism for people to resolve disputes whether it is elections whether it is has to do with access to resources and more importantly that is going to douse tension. In that regard, if we begin to strengthen our democratic institution, that will help to promote accountability through the institutions such as the

32:31 legislature, the court to the judiciary and the anti- agencies and more importantly create opportunity for people to know have access, you know, equal access to the resources of the Nigerian state. But we cannot strengthen our democratic institutions if we do not pay attention to some of the persistent challenges that have undermined the practice of democracy in Nigeria. Top on the list of course I've mentioned is of course the prevalence and the persistence of electoral malpractices and violence meaning that elections do not reflect the true wishes of the people that in itself creates foundation for the weakening of institutions and capacity because those who emerge victorious do not reflect the views and wishes of the people and more importantly lacks the capacity both in terms of mental capacity and commitment to be able to deliver. Second is that

33:16 because they do not reflect the wishes of the people, corruption and impunity re high that in itself eros citizens cap interest in the accountability of this institution forcing people again not to identify with the Nigerian state and more importantly also leading to abuse of state power essentially because our frameworks for civic engagement is weak. Then what do we do? We need to begin to rediscover platforms and opportunities for civic engagement, community town halls, meetings, platforms like we see in the social media, civil society activism be rejuvenated irrespective of crackdown and militarization by government you know to hold those in positions accountable whether they came through a

34:02 fraudulent election or whether they came through a free and fair elections. Once they place themselves and know before Nigerians to lead Nigerians, then I think we need a very strong civic engagement posture uh to begin to hold those people accountable. This is the only way that Nigerians will begin to move away from being passive observers of the trends and character of politics to becoming active participants, ones that will demand and promote accountability. You know, Nigerians that can demand political institution and more importantly the ones that can talk about community relations and democratic structure. we see in happen. >> Thank you, Prof. I'm just reminding you that time is running out. So, just to keep you, we're enjoying your lecture, but time is not in our favor. Continue. So, a few minutes. >> Okay. Very good. So, I'm saying that no

34:48 matter the challenges we have had in terms of the last democratic experience, we can see signals and figments of effort you know to heighten civic engagement. And I think the NSA uh protest and as well as the endbad governance protest are typical example that we can mention irrespective of the fact that we saw the whole eye issue of how they degenerated in parts of the country and even the politicization of them. But I think that more than ever before we need to begin to invest on four critical pathways that can bring about sustainable peace in Nigeria. First is that government will begin to think about how do we develop frameworks for inclusive development. Once we have inclusive development that people from different part of the country irrespective of religion, geography, ethnicity, uh we begin to have that

35:34 shared understanding that Nigeria belongs to all of us. That shared identity is is going to enable the building of trust and the building of trust from fundamentally is going to lead to reduction uh in tension. So what are the strategic pathways? Pathway number one, we need to strengthen institutions of governance. number you know make sure we strengthen our judiciary uh to enable them to dispense justice as quickly as timely and equitably as possible. Then we know to make sure that the institutions of government from the part of view of civil society are meant to be accountable. Uh we need to deepen our civic engagement you know do a whole lot of consentization through active civil society engagement you know train our youth consent our youth not to lose hope uh the importance of them having trust in the electoral system even though it

36:21 has consistently failed them we don't have an alternative we can't go to cool we still have to have that faith and so deepening that engagement and trying to rediscover people's interest in the democratic setting can then enhance the potentials for people to continue to put pressure on government particularly to engineer electoral reforms that make our votes to count. On the basis of that, we can then have a much more cohesive society where every community have that sense of inclusion where conflicts and dispute will be reconciled peacefully and more importantly where we can attain and retain a sense of uh national values. So what are my strategic recommendations? I think I have recommendations both for those in government and then the civil society. uh for government I think priority number one is that we need to begin to

37:07 intake undertake extensive institutional and electoral reform. I think that the bullet point the silver bullet lies on our electoral system. Fix our electoral system our governance system will work and then we can begin to have a more peaceful society. Once we have an electoral system that you know provide opportunity for credible people people to emerge then I think some of the tensions and the polarization we have in Nigeria will begin to be addressed by a much more capable political leaders. We need to invest on peace infrastructure. We talk about conflict all the time but there are peace infrastructures in our communities. We need to resource them. We can see efforts by some states to build state peace commissions. That is an action in the right direction. Such institutions need to be reform resourced so that they can also sustain uh mediation at the level of uh community

37:55 uh before it actually escalates. Justice and security sector capacity building. Uh we need to pay more attention again looking at what is happening on the courts in order to strengthen them so that they can dispense justice because sense of injustice is a major factor that have led to tensions, dispute and violence in this country and more importantly our government must begin to you know clearly target uh the youths. We have substantial uh size of the Nigerian population made up of the youth. Uh they can make these countries. They are the victims of Nigeria's poor governors but also they are the vanguards of insecurity in Nigeria. So identifying them and properly resourcing avenues opportunities to deal with that will mitigate that problem. Finally strategic recommendations for civil society community leaders still have a

38:42 lot of flow to play. We need to pay attention to traditional institutions, religious leaders to be able to deal with some of these issues we are having at the local and grassroot level. civil society need to sustain their engagement and activism particularly to be able to address the whole issues of violent mobilization and violent extremism and then uh the youth have mentioned that the last point I want to mention is where I am a stakeholder and please permit me uh the chair just to use one minute to round off I think this is where I have a role to play if you look at some of the indices I've cited to underscore the peacefulness or insecurity in Nigeria some of them are largely developed outside Since we're having a national problem and we are having over hundreds of universities in Nigeria. I think now more than ever before the challenge has to be thrown

39:28 back to the universities. We need to begin to devise you know nimble effective evidence-based tools you know for assessing some of these critical elements of our national life that will inform policy and programmatic interventions by government. For example, we can develop robust tools to measure national peace index in Nigeria in such a way that you can't talk about it euroentricism but they talk about specificities in context of the experience of Nigerian community political zones. We can talk about social cohesion, community resilience index and even begin to do more research on peace where has it worked in communities so that we can actually develop best practices that can be adapted and best practices that can be replicated in order to begin to roll back of violence. So on this note, I want to conclude by saying that sustainable

40:15 peace is both a means and an end. A process of collective action to repair and nurture relations and a goal that would ensure justice, inclusion and society more than ever before. As we celebrate the June 12 uh 1993 experience, I think it's an opportunity for us to begin to reflect differently deeply how far we have come, the progress we have made, the mistake we have made on the part and then begin to re-engineer and fashion the way forward. civic engagement, democratic governance and building social cohesion will be the desi datu or desi data for the attainment of sustainable peace in Nigeria. So thank you so much for the opportunity. I saw you gave me three more minutes to round up. So thank you. Thank you professor. Thank you sir. Robust conversation. >> Thank you professor. That was our

41:01 professor ona. uh if professor speaks you will agree with me that it is a professional talk and thank you for sharing the slide I'll be grateful if you share it with peace building foundation so that it can be shared after the program do we I say let's take few questions today is Friday it's a challenging day let's take few question from the professor but professor even after the question don't go away because we will engage together so uh let's any question for professor can you raise your hand online So that if any comment for professor I'm not seeing hands secretary help me locate any comment or questions for professor I didn't see any sign please there is an

41:48 indicator in your uh platform you can raise your hand and I will see it any comment for professor or we should take the next paper >> yeah good morning sir Good morning. Yes, go ahead. >> Okay. Thank you so much pro for this wonderful lecture this morning. We really appreciate you and my concern here now is this. Majority of Nigerians >> your name introduce yourself. >> Sorry please. My name is Friday Akime. So majority of Nigerians see the state and judiciary as as the one that have been politicized. meaning they dance to the tools of those who place them where they are. Prof. How do you think we can address that issue?

42:35 Because I think what this is one of the issues that with lack of trust have become a problem seeing the way Nigeria is going today. I want us to address that issue in a way that we everybody will be included in governance instead of >> you have made your case. Any thank you. Any other question? because I would allow only two and then the professor will respondse then we are done with questions and answers. Yes, I've seen another hand. Any other hand? >> Sorry. Yes. Yes. My my hand is up. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning professor. Thank you for your wonderful lecture. My name is Unukawa. I'm a security consultant and um I just want to ask the professor a a question concerning um he talked about civil society and I discovered that most of

43:21 these civil society action are just um probably on paper most of the time they only discussed in um probably in in meetings and hotels and after that meeting when it comes to the implementation it becomes um off target it becomes um it doesn't even meet the right persons that you're supposed to in terms of the targeted populations that supposed to impact. Now I and I see that um having worked in um an implementing partner for the USAD I discovered that the USID pumps a lot of money into civil advocacy but the problem is that um most of these things are not even monitored in terms of impact it is the impact you only feel them on paper you don't feel that impact in terms of influencing government decision concerning security and insecurity or national intelligence

44:07 and I discovered that most of these civil advocacies they are not even after security as it says because I particularly worked under a civil advocacy under implementing partner in Nigeria. Yeah. I discovered they not even focused on security. They don't even talk with the Nigerian police or the Nigerian army when discussing civil uh civil engagements concerning um national security. >> Thank you. >> You made your case. Thank you so much. Let's listen to professor. Professor, please be >> okay. I have a question. >> Our hands were up before that other last speaker please. Yes madame Justin after you please proceed ma'am. >> Okay. >> All right please professor. >> Good morning everyone. >> Good morning everyone. Professor thank

44:53 you very much for that elaborate presentation. You know I caught um I work in preventing and counter extremism space and um most of you agree with me that most of these things are being perpetrated by youth and now youth have lost interest in this country and you said to re to be able to revive this they need to engage more in civil um in civic responsibilities and all that. Now an engagement in civic right and all that. What about where the youth are now ready to engage and believe in this country again and the the state architecture or the statist is being used against this youth even when they want to come out and do the right thing and the government will use the state architecture either either the state

45:41 architecture to come against or to fight these youth or dispass them or some of them are being in prison. These are some of the things that make them to withdraw. So nobody wants to there's no justice. So what can be done to remedy this situation? Thank you. >> Thank you. I I have closed other comments. >> No sir, you cannot close. Sorry sir. >> Let's let's bear with the situation. >> Let me properly take my concerns please. Good morning everyone. Special >> we can't move like this. Uh >> but my hand was up all the while pro. >> But you didn't see it. >> We said three people. Now you are the >> my hand was up before them. >> Okay. The last one. The last one. Could you just allow him allow him to talk please? >> Thank you very much. Uh good morning everyone. I I particularly recognize and

46:28 appreciate retired general Wahab and our pro for this beautiful presentation. I think the second to the last speaker actually butressed the concern I wanted to pose on the kind of brazing and blanket statement he made about civil societies. And these are where the concerns are. you know the way um civil societies are are portrayed nationally the the government and public individuals don't see that collaboration or does see that intent or impact of what civil societies want to make so how do we start to address these things he he worked for one entity and just generalized that csos are not interested in addressing security issues that is not true you know as someone who works in the space and engages a lot of actors

47:14 in the space and the government as well I I can tell you that CSOS are making you know consensious impact to address these issues and even when you engage with the government you find out that they agree with all the things you've laid down in today's presentation. So where is the disconnect? Is it that government recognizes things behind closed doors and then is about form and substance? How do we begin to engage stakeholders constructively to start addressing these issues to deliver desirable results? Thank you very much. Sir, you can now reply but don't give anybody permission again. Okay. Okay. I'm the chair. I have given permission enough. It's enough to reply. Thank you. >> Thank you so very much because I I noticed it was becoming a struggle. So the best bet was for him to concede. Apologies I swoop to your power. So

48:01 quickly um I think I I I will walk back in the direction that the questions came. I think the last person that spoke I suspect is because his name popped up. I don't know whether I am correct. And uh I think he also tried to caution about a comment some someone made about you know these civil societies I think is ina not being on ground and their effect not being seen. So I walk back and I'll join two of them. I tend to agree with you clearly that um uh we have seen some measurable and noticeable contributions of the civil society in trying to address the problem. I used to ask people this question what if they are not even there at all. It means that the situation would have been from worse to tragedy in this country. And I give you typically two examples. Many of you may not know but you may have also known

48:47 the the police response unit. Now if no matter how ineffective it is, but at least is functional is actually a product of the advocacy by civil society groups particularly the clean foundation when they began to engage the police on the issues of excess in the days of innocent chukuma. And so that forced the police to at least that forced the police to at least begin to think about that public uh public complex response unit PCC that that that could be very small but that is an achievement. I can also tell you as somebody who spent almost a decade interfacing and working with the Nigerian military. I can assure you also that the creation of the human right decks almost across the trade services were an outcome of sustained engagement between civil society organizations including clean foundation that I've worked with with the military

49:33 to say look you cannot really be a judge no more juda you cannot be a judge in your own case you need to listen to people to see what people are saying about military operations that need force the military to at least create the human rights particularly beginning from the ar with the army and I think the the air force of the navy similar outfit for me that is a clear indication of some of the small fruits you know that the civil society has have achieved I don't want to loud other civil society groups I know somebody like professor joilo activism what it has brought about gender equality and red addressing issues about rape in the southeast at least where I live so there may be pockets of successes and achievement that not be as big and as magnificent as you may wish to be but the question I will ask you is what would have been the

50:20 hope of Nigerians if those simple small minute minimal interventions by the civil societies were not there I think what we need to do is to begin to talk about how we can scale up you know to make sure that some of these civil society groups do it the second thing is to ask academics to begin to really do a study and profile these civil society groups in case you don't know under Bhari there was a lot of civil society organizations we know we are created to support the government and those civil society organizations I don't know some of them were actually politicized civil society organization created to support you know created to support and gain legitimacy for a government that was actually not reflective of the feelings and and aspirations of Nigeria. So those are the problems we are having. Um how do we scale civil society groups sources

51:05 that we begin to monitor them scholars academics need to begin to be bold enough to check what these civil societies are doing. Uh we can also begin even to query to look at the books. If you're a very good student of the politics of aid, people thought that we should be picking dead bodies on the streets of Africa with Donald Trump, you know, counseling and bringing down you said, but I'm sure you can see that we are not picking dead bodies on the streets. Yes, some philanthropic organizations and groups are closing that funding gap. But the reality therefore is that the character and the dynamics of the use of aid has tended to favor some people. Maybe this civil society organization it keeps them more comfortable that bringing about concrete measurable transformations in the outcomes of the life of the people they used to write their proposal. I know this is very well because I work with civil society organizations. So from the

51:52 person who mentioned um the whole issues about the youth I I completely agree with you and I also can feel your desperation and your frustration. uh we have seen the youth in the past try to hold and engage government but we have also seen excessive militarization and secretaritization and crackdown on these youth is a typical protest but are we going to give up you know giving up is not an option and that is why I said that fundamentally fixing the problem of this country starts with election and this is where we as Nigerians no matter our places our little spaces need to begin to ganize in our own communities to insist that election ctions deliver what he promised to be. I don't want to loud my state. I'm from Abia state. I

52:37 don't want to loud it but I'm sure many of you know what is happening in Abia state today essentially because one professor stood her ground and ensured that the outcome of the election was the basis of what people voted today. Abia state that has been in don has began to gain some land in terms of references as where governance can work. I am trying to say that we can't turn this country overnight but we need to start on our own little space. Wherever you are, support democratic transformation. Let's hold them accountable through elections. So if I have missed if I missed your response, please you can actually send me a direct chat. I'm sitting here and I can respond so that I can place for the next person to present. Thank you so very much. >> Thank you bro. Thank you. Thank you very much. Everybody will appreciate that. It is time for the general to come in. A lot of issues about civil society, a lot

53:23 of issues to do with human right issues, a lot of discussion about uh how civil society are suppressed by the military. But now there is a right man to talk about it. I think we put you in the right direction. After professor spoke, the right person to speak is major general retired GA. General general, please take the floor. I'm sure you'll be able to answer some of the concern raised by the professor and members of the civil society on this platform. General, can you please make your presentation? >> Thank you very much. Well, uh, this is ladies and gentlemen.

54:10 I've been asked to, let me appreciate the peace building. I've been asked to talk about strengthening national security while protecting civil space and human rights in Nigeria's democracy. And uh, I hope you are seeing my screen. Hello. >> Yes, we can to enlarge it. You need to make it okay. >> You need to make it full screen. >> Yes. >> How you saying it now? >> Yes. Fantastic. >> Starting with the fact that yes, we all agree responsibility of government to provide security for citizens and that will assist in the development of the country and like Robert McNamera one

54:56 time secretary of state said like Nigeria is a modernized society. Security means development. Without security, there can't be development. Without development, there can't be security. The two goes together. And so, government had created some organizations uh to pursue that. And it is there. That's part of what is referred to as vital national vital interest and nation can go to over that. But unfortunately, we are in an environment that the military refer to as vaua, violent, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. We actually in a state of war globally and everywhere you have issues. So we are not the only one facing this problem and uh it's not just about what is happening in Nigeria. It's globally and it's about people pursuing their national interest and I put a thing in

55:42 there. He said what we have is clash of civilization and he gave nice civilizations but dominics Maurice said no it's clash of culture culture of fear in the in the west. No matter what happen they still want to do everybody. So part of the problem hello >> part of the problem we are facing >> mute your all others mute your own microphone please everybody mute your microphone >> part of the problem we are facing now is is that fear in the west while the the east are hopeful you are coming back to us we have imulation in the Arab world and of by 1990 we have the belief that we are going to have peace and France Fukuyama who wrote his book end of history. We have triumph of capitalism

56:28 and that's democracy. Countries are now embracing democracy because of rule of law, cooperation, representation and we have greater connectivity, cheaper and faster communication and transportation. But unfortunately the the the what we expect had not been met and the the whole thing was worsening by 11th September 200 terror attack in US by al-Qaeda. So a lot of things had happened. People are becoming poorer. There's increase in irregular migration due to perceive or real marginalization and bad treatment in their countries because of lack of social justice. We have increase in democracy but it had resulted more in more deficit particularly in Nigeria and not dividends. So the civil space had been encroached by government and other group

57:14 pursuing and strengthening national security which is what I'm supposed to talk about. So how do people get their views across and their rights respected? These are some of the things I'm supposed to talk about and we always have clash between national interest and security and people's rights. So it's part of the issue that we need to look at seriously. Let me not bore you with let me just go straight to clarif clarification of concept. The first one is national security. Please I want you to understand there is no universally accepted definition and the problem is from security itself. What is security? When you look at what said life is in the state of nature naturally it's very solitary you are on your own it's poor it's nasty it's brutish and short nobody

58:01 live up to 200 years so everybody wants to be very comfortable and that is going to lead to clashes and so we need government to regulate which is part of national security so when you the the when you discuss national security you are talking about the perception of everybody but what I'm looking at is is a quality of state of being secured. If you look at it from that perspective, it has both objective and subjective connotation. The objective element is everybody wants to be free from danger, fear and anxiety which is human security. The subjective element is these are the measures taken by government and even individuals to make them free to make them at least support ensure that nobody comes around and attack you freely and that's physical security and that's objective because

58:47 whatever measure you take or the government takes is going to infringe on somebody else's freedom or right and I want to quote Barry Ban who look at national security from five perspectives which I refer to as dimes diplomacy or politics information, military, economic and social. And he went for further to said when you are talking about national security. There are two threats, two major types of threats. One is by capability. The person coming must be capable of trying to threaten you. And the second is by ideology. So both are playing up in Nigeria. Both ideological. Even though I stand to be corrected when you talk about political entity, >> it is just about people using in front

59:34 of religion but all they are pursuing is power, political power and that's part of the problem we're facing today. Well, now the second uh something I'm going to clarify is civic space which is linked to World War II development and declaration of human rights in 1948. It's about freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and expression for people to be able to participate and communicate freely to influence political and social structures in the area. And so it is central to open and democratic society protecting people by government itself and facilitating freedom by the government and their groups. And so the global body civic course started using the term in 2011 and defines it simply as the place the

1:00:19 physical virtual and legal for people to express their rights and these are where the problems are coming from which I'll handle at the end of towards the end of the presentation. Human rights is linked to civic space but it's about acknowledging people as humans with values and capabilities and protecting those rights now and in the future. which include political, economic, social and cultural and we have issues even with this. What is democracy? Abraham Lincoln says the government of the people by the people and for the people which is been challenged that is applicable only to the western democracies and I gave a definition by lip set which look at it from two two elements regular

1:01:06 supplies of those who lead and influences major decisions by greater part of the society uh challenging using those in political office are we doing that in Nigeria are the senators and house of rep members are they actually going back to their constituency to say this is what I want to do this what we need those are some of the issues so when you talk about democracy it is more than voting as you must develop political the democratic culture you must have the tendency to cooperate with others among so many other things so I'm I quickly run to ten of democracy I'm going to look at three things the first is that the liberal west had created a problem for for for for other parts of the

1:01:52 world. They've identified three majorly three types of democracies. liberal democracy which the liberal democracy in Africa the way what we practice in Nigeria and thank God the pro who who spoke earlier I talked about even even fraud in election and that's why these people are saying is a liberal democracy where somebody will attempt to do a lot of even on their own side and the third is automatic autocratic democracy but but whatever you practice the first is tenate changing officials at noon time you give dates and non-performing officials and unconstitutional processes or behavior can be replaced. If you can do that particularly internal security then you are practicing democracy. The second

1:02:37 tenate is irrespective of the type of democracy you are practicing the emphasis is on civil control of the military which is where I come in. Elected officials are to oversee military and not allow the military to be too powerful. Looking at definition of VA who says when you are talking about civil military relation is to have you want the military to be so powerful to to ensure that people from outside don't infringe on you but that power must not be too much that they will not become nuisance within their own environment and Samuel not advocated an objective control of the military itself. So this this is the second tenant overseeing what the military is

1:03:23 doing and and the third one is democracy about open and free market and cooperation participation in social political and economic activities which allows for peaceful coexistence and is one of the problems we have in Nigeria because people are not being allowed to participate in some of the things I've mentioned here and when you allow cooperation only minor skimmishes will develop will be faced by government and you the government can now go to war when there are problems from outside and but but that war is based on another principle which is just war which are seven principles. So these are some of the things we need to look at and I I will quickly run through the changing nature of national security. Yes said five factors but today you have more than 17 factors even the economy which

1:04:10 he mentioned have been broken into two or three. You have the economic by the policy of government and financial. That's how you spend your money. How you get your money. And when people say why are you having economic and financial crimes commission in Nigeria and I told them it's because internationally economics and and financial have been separated. Financial is about uh individuals and groups the way they they make their money the way they spend their money. Why the economy is about

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