Peace Corps @ 20: Weathering the storms of inter-agency rivalry
By Joshua Otene
ON July 10, 2018, the Peace Corps of Nigeria marked its 20th anniversary as a corporate entity. With Discipline and Patriotic Services as its motto, the Corps is committed to promoting National creativity, Peace and Youth Development. The Corps’ Mission Statement include training, educating and orientating the youths on leadership and nation-building, to enable them become decent citizens with respect for constituted authorities, democratic norms and the rule of law.
But the Corps’ existence today can be attributed to the rare courage and resilience of its founder and National commandant, Amb. Dr. Dickson A. O. Akoh (FCITr), values which he evidently transmitted to all loyal members of the Corps over the years. Left to the whims of some security agencies, especially the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, and the Department of State Services,DSS, the Corps would have long been a relic, with its officers either hounded into detention or intimidated into denouncing the organisation.
No thanks to the incessant disruption of its camping and training activities; the frequent gestapo-style raiding of its National Headquarters by the Police, the arbitrary arrest, detention, harassment and intimidation of its members and the frustration of its efforts to post its members to their required places of assignment, a laudable initiative that should otherwise serve as a thriving source of alternative employment for many unemployed youths, while providing a viable support base to the existing security agencies, is compelled to dissipate energy and resources to stave off the pernicious grips of its detractors, who are bent on asphyxiating it.
File: Peace-Corps
In my opinion, the onslaught of the Police and DSS on the Peace Corps is symptomatic of the scourge of inter-agency rivalry, which has recently constituted the unwritten Service Code of our security agencies and frustrated the war against insecurity, especially terrorism, in Nigeria. This is despite the fact that the Peace Corps is not yet a statutory security agency. However, the intention of its detractors is to ensure that the Corps never attains the status of a statutory security agency.
The debilitating consequences of inter-agency rivalry in Nigeria has been attested to by renowned security experts. On Sunrise Daily, a regular programme on Channels Television, on June 27, 2018; Mr. Lawrence Alobi, a former Commissioner of Police, FCT Command and Mr. Mike Ejiofor, also a former Director of the DSS, in discussing the gory Plateau massacre of the preceding week that left over 200 people dead, both alluded to the fact that rivalry among the security agencies greatly hamper the fight against insecurity. In particular, they decried the non-sharing of intelligence with the relevant agencies at proximity that should act expeditiously on such intelligence, because of the misplaced clamour to be the first agency that will obviously for political considerations, report the information to the ‘Centre’. Since Abuja cannot act directly on such intelligence, it will have to relay it to the security agency that should have been privy to it in the first place, for effective action, in what time a lot of damage could have occurred.
Also, the Executive Secretary of the Centre for Crisis Communication, Air Commodore Yusuf Anas (rtd), at a special meeting of the Forum of Spokespersons of Security and Response Agencies held in Abuja in 2017, stated that: “…We have also noticed conflicting information, disinformation and rivalries among respective organisations through the media. These developments can damage the reputation of the agencies involved and give Nigeria a bad image”. So if stiff rivalry exists between the Police, DSS, NIA, NSCDC, FRSC, etc., we can only imagine what the fate of Peace Corps, which is still a civil society organisation, will be.
I also recall that about the time that the Peace Corps Bill was pending Mr. President’s assent, an audio recording went viral, in which the voice of a former Police top brass was heard clearly deprecating the Corps and vehemently opposing the signing of the Peace Corps Bill by Mr. President, claiming that whereas the Police was still clamouring for increased budgetary allocation, Peace Corps wants to acquire the status of a statutory organisation also, to begin to demand for budgetary allocations as well. The audio record conveyed the top brass’ voice saying this was how the Civil Defence started and today, they bear firearms like the police. I am not aware of any rebuttal to the audio by the Force Headquarters, so I assume that its authenticity is not in doubt.
I also watched with disgust, another former Force brass, sometime ago on national television, haranguing the Peace Corps and pontificating that the Nigeria Police cannot allow the Corps to operate because the Corps was a fraudulent organisation.
I considered it ludicrous to think that the police, which today boldly bears the emblem of corruption, could muster the moral fibre to bring down the hammer on Peace Corps of Nigeria, which is by all considerations, a decent and law-abiding organisation. In any case, the Nigeria Police isn’t a court of law and it absolutely lacks the powers to label any organisation that is operating within the ambits of the law, as fraudulent. If the Police strongly feels that the Peace Corps of Nigeria, a duly registered organisation, is fraudulent, what it needs to do is to charge it to court and allow the law to take its course.
But to the best of my knowledge, the Peace Corps of Nigeria has received some favourable judgments from courts of competent jurisdiction against the police, which the police have blatantly refused to respect. For instance, Justices Gabriel Kolawole and John Tsoho, both of the Federal High Court, Abuja, have on different occasions over the last two years, granted reliefs to the Peace Corps of Nigeria against the NPF, ordering the unsealing of the Peace Corps Headquarters in Jabi, which was raided by the police and have been kept under lock and key since February 28, 2017.
In fact, in delivering his judgement, Justice Kolawole ordered the Nigeria police to pay the Peace Corps the sum of N12.5 million as compensation “to appease them for the harassment and intimidation they suffered when they were unlawfully arrested and detained”. But till date, the police, a supposed custodian of the law, has remained adamant to the court ruling.
Ironically, the NSCDC, which suffered a similar fate as the Peace Corps in the hands of the police before its Bill was eventually accented to by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, is now in league with the police to frustrate the passage of the Peace Corps Bill. It is imperative for the police and all other security agencies to bear in mind that the onerous task of securing Nigeria requires all hands to be on deck. Therefore, rather than compete for pre-eminence, they should work to foster cooperation and mutual respect for one another. After all, it doesn’t matter to the ordinary citizen which agency is the most effective, provided lives and property are secured.
Source:https://samueljackson12.blogspot.com/2019/02/peace-corps-20-weathering-storms-of.html
ON July 10, 2018, the Peace Corps of Nigeria marked its 20th anniversary as a corporate entity. With Discipline and Patriotic Services as its motto, the Corps is committed to promoting National creativity, Peace and Youth Development. The Corps’ Mission Statement include training, educating and orientating the youths on leadership and nation-building, to enable them become decent citizens with respect for constituted authorities, democratic norms and the rule of law.
But the Corps’ existence today can be attributed to the rare courage and resilience of its founder and National commandant, Amb. Dr. Dickson A. O. Akoh (FCITr), values which he evidently transmitted to all loyal members of the Corps over the years. Left to the whims of some security agencies, especially the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, and the Department of State Services,DSS, the Corps would have long been a relic, with its officers either hounded into detention or intimidated into denouncing the organisation.
No thanks to the incessant disruption of its camping and training activities; the frequent gestapo-style raiding of its National Headquarters by the Police, the arbitrary arrest, detention, harassment and intimidation of its members and the frustration of its efforts to post its members to their required places of assignment, a laudable initiative that should otherwise serve as a thriving source of alternative employment for many unemployed youths, while providing a viable support base to the existing security agencies, is compelled to dissipate energy and resources to stave off the pernicious grips of its detractors, who are bent on asphyxiating it.
File: Peace-Corps
In my opinion, the onslaught of the Police and DSS on the Peace Corps is symptomatic of the scourge of inter-agency rivalry, which has recently constituted the unwritten Service Code of our security agencies and frustrated the war against insecurity, especially terrorism, in Nigeria. This is despite the fact that the Peace Corps is not yet a statutory security agency. However, the intention of its detractors is to ensure that the Corps never attains the status of a statutory security agency.
The debilitating consequences of inter-agency rivalry in Nigeria has been attested to by renowned security experts. On Sunrise Daily, a regular programme on Channels Television, on June 27, 2018; Mr. Lawrence Alobi, a former Commissioner of Police, FCT Command and Mr. Mike Ejiofor, also a former Director of the DSS, in discussing the gory Plateau massacre of the preceding week that left over 200 people dead, both alluded to the fact that rivalry among the security agencies greatly hamper the fight against insecurity. In particular, they decried the non-sharing of intelligence with the relevant agencies at proximity that should act expeditiously on such intelligence, because of the misplaced clamour to be the first agency that will obviously for political considerations, report the information to the ‘Centre’. Since Abuja cannot act directly on such intelligence, it will have to relay it to the security agency that should have been privy to it in the first place, for effective action, in what time a lot of damage could have occurred.
Also, the Executive Secretary of the Centre for Crisis Communication, Air Commodore Yusuf Anas (rtd), at a special meeting of the Forum of Spokespersons of Security and Response Agencies held in Abuja in 2017, stated that: “…We have also noticed conflicting information, disinformation and rivalries among respective organisations through the media. These developments can damage the reputation of the agencies involved and give Nigeria a bad image”. So if stiff rivalry exists between the Police, DSS, NIA, NSCDC, FRSC, etc., we can only imagine what the fate of Peace Corps, which is still a civil society organisation, will be.
I also recall that about the time that the Peace Corps Bill was pending Mr. President’s assent, an audio recording went viral, in which the voice of a former Police top brass was heard clearly deprecating the Corps and vehemently opposing the signing of the Peace Corps Bill by Mr. President, claiming that whereas the Police was still clamouring for increased budgetary allocation, Peace Corps wants to acquire the status of a statutory organisation also, to begin to demand for budgetary allocations as well. The audio record conveyed the top brass’ voice saying this was how the Civil Defence started and today, they bear firearms like the police. I am not aware of any rebuttal to the audio by the Force Headquarters, so I assume that its authenticity is not in doubt.
I also watched with disgust, another former Force brass, sometime ago on national television, haranguing the Peace Corps and pontificating that the Nigeria Police cannot allow the Corps to operate because the Corps was a fraudulent organisation.
I considered it ludicrous to think that the police, which today boldly bears the emblem of corruption, could muster the moral fibre to bring down the hammer on Peace Corps of Nigeria, which is by all considerations, a decent and law-abiding organisation. In any case, the Nigeria Police isn’t a court of law and it absolutely lacks the powers to label any organisation that is operating within the ambits of the law, as fraudulent. If the Police strongly feels that the Peace Corps of Nigeria, a duly registered organisation, is fraudulent, what it needs to do is to charge it to court and allow the law to take its course.
But to the best of my knowledge, the Peace Corps of Nigeria has received some favourable judgments from courts of competent jurisdiction against the police, which the police have blatantly refused to respect. For instance, Justices Gabriel Kolawole and John Tsoho, both of the Federal High Court, Abuja, have on different occasions over the last two years, granted reliefs to the Peace Corps of Nigeria against the NPF, ordering the unsealing of the Peace Corps Headquarters in Jabi, which was raided by the police and have been kept under lock and key since February 28, 2017.
In fact, in delivering his judgement, Justice Kolawole ordered the Nigeria police to pay the Peace Corps the sum of N12.5 million as compensation “to appease them for the harassment and intimidation they suffered when they were unlawfully arrested and detained”. But till date, the police, a supposed custodian of the law, has remained adamant to the court ruling.
Ironically, the NSCDC, which suffered a similar fate as the Peace Corps in the hands of the police before its Bill was eventually accented to by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, is now in league with the police to frustrate the passage of the Peace Corps Bill. It is imperative for the police and all other security agencies to bear in mind that the onerous task of securing Nigeria requires all hands to be on deck. Therefore, rather than compete for pre-eminence, they should work to foster cooperation and mutual respect for one another. After all, it doesn’t matter to the ordinary citizen which agency is the most effective, provided lives and property are secured.
Source:https://samueljackson12.blogspot.com/2019/02/peace-corps-20-weathering-storms-of.html
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