ENHANCING UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN YOUTH AND POLICE THROUGH PEACEBUILD AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

A PAPER PRESENTION AT CLEEN FOUNDATION YOUTH AND POLICE FORUM IN LAGOS STATE AREA B COMMAND, APAPA HELD ON TUESDAY 21ST JUNE, 2011.

PRESENTER: Olutoyin Falade – Executive Director, Innovative Strategy for Human Development (ISHD)

INTRODUCTION
Improving relations between police and youth is part of the Community Relations Service which all relevant stakeholders must be committed to at all times. This becomes expedient in any society because of the importance placed on the two groups – one is the future of a nation while the other secures a nation.
The two groups under this discourse have been known to point accusing finger to each other on many issues bothering on the peace and security of our country, Nigeria. How long will they continue to accuse each other without having a way forward?

In order to avoid more incidences of violence that have been recorded in the past as a result of lack of understanding between our youth and police, the concept Conflict Management, which is also a skill will be exposed for our understanding in this discourse.

WHAT IS CONFLICT?
Conflict has been defined by many people based on their ideas, beliefs, values and experiences in life. One can bet if these definitions are not anything to lean on because those ideas, beliefs, values and experiences are opined by negative feelings and attitudes.

Conflict is when two or more values, perspectives and opinions are contradictory in nature and perform period. Getting the most out of diversity means often-contradictory values, perspectives and opinions haven't been aligned or agreed about yet, including:
1. Within yourself when you're not living according to your values;
2. When your values and perspectives are threatened; or
3. Discomfort from fear of the unknown or from lack of fulfillment.

Conflict may be defined as a struggle or contest between people with opposing needs, ideas, beliefs, values, or goals. The Chinese defines Conflict as an “Opportunity for Change”. Conflict on teams is inevitable; however, the results of conflict are not predetermined. Conflict might escalate and lead to nonproductive results, or conflict can be beneficially resolved and lead to quality final products. Therefore, learning to manage conflict is integral to a high-performance team. Although very few people go looking for conflict, more often than not, conflict results because of miscommunication between people with regard to their needs, ideas, beliefs, goals, or values. Conflict management is the principle that all conflicts cannot necessarily be resolved, but learning how to manage conflicts can decrease the odds of nonproductive escalation. Conflict management involves acquiring skills related to conflict resolution, self-awareness about environment, conflict modes, conflict communication skills, and establishing a structure for management of conflict in your life.

UNDERSTANDING CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Conflict management entails a lot of activities/interventions which are proactive and result- oriented by the parties involved in a conflict and/or by a third party. Conflict management helps to us to identify and understanding the following:
• The causes of conflict
• The stages of conflict
• The parties in a conflict
• Conflict handling styles

CAUSES OF CONFLICT
Many causes of conflicts have identified ranging from land/border dispute to political dispute. For this discourse, three categories of causes of conflict are highlighted for understanding, as follows:

1. Resources
This is physical, which means it can be finite and infinite, countable and uncountable, but a source of conflict due to greed, inadequate planning, uneven distribution, occurrence of natural disasters which leads to migration to mention a few. Examples of such disputes are land dispute, fuel crisis and water-shortage.
2. Values
Our values are based on our religious and moral beliefs, which differ from place to place. What is one person’s value may not go for another person and that being the beginning of trouble if not handled properly. Take for example, one person values NEATNESS and shares a room with someone who is all the time untidy – what do you think the outcome will be (it can be imagined, right)
3. Psychological
This has to do with one’s psychic that is emotional and behavioral characteristics of any person. Our feeling of happiness, self-worth, life satisfaction and fulfillment becomes important. The feelings to love and be loved, as well as sense of belongingness cannot be ruled out. Where an individual finds it difficult to express these feelings it can create conflicts. Our personality types can also be another cause if not handled well. One person is a talkative and the other is quite (extroverts and introverts) which we call personality clash.
4. Others are mis-information, wrong information, inadequate information and perception. Communication of course cannot be ruled out, too. Therefore, watch what you say, how you say it, where you say it, when you say it and who you say it to, because you might not be able to handle it.

CONFLICT HANDLING STYLES
Three types of conflict handling styles shall be considered for this discourse, they are;
1. Avoidance
Pretend it is not there or ignore it.
a. Use it when it simply is not worth the effort to argue. Usually this approach tends
to worsen the conflict over time.
2. Confrontation
Confrontation involves one of the parties involved in a conflict facing the other for an explanation for carrying out an act that is not acceptable. This must be done without violence in order to have a good result.
3. Joint Problem Solving. Focus on working together.
a. Use when the goal is to meet as many current needs as possible by using mutual
resources. This approach sometimes raises new mutual needs.
b. Use when the goal is to cultivate ownership and commitment.

TOOLS FOR CONFLICT MANAGEMENT AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION
These tools are also very important in handling conflict for youth and police of the 21st Century as follows:
• Communication
• Negotiation
• Mediation
• Arbitration
• Litigation

CONCLUSION
Both groups are supposed to work with these conflict management skills for a better relationship in our society.

Press Release: Commencement of 2011 National Crime and Safety Survey

Introduction

The CLEEN Foundation wishes to announce the commencement of the 2011 edition of its National Crime and Safety Survey. The survey will last for three weeks, covering the 36 states of Nigeria and Abuja, the Federal Capital.

Sampling and Method of Survey

Ten thousand respondents will be interviewed in their homes using personal face-to-face interview and multi-stage sampling technique. To ensure adequate representation of adult Nigerian population, probability sampling procedure will be used to neutralize any known form of bias that may affect the findings of the study. Respondents will be males and females, age 18 years and above.  Interviews will be conducted throughout week days and weekends, to ensure that respondents of all lifestyles are included in the sample.

Required information will be collected using structured close-ended questionnaire. The preference for closed-ended questions is informed by the fact they are less time consuming for the respondents to complete and can be easily be keyed into the computer. The questionnaire is designed to capture respondents’ household/personal experiences of crime victimization, human rights violations, road accidents; perceptions of safety; police/security agencies response to crime and general perception of crime and the criminal justice system. The questionnaire is divided into 10 sections.  Sections 1-3 deal with respondents’ experiences of crime victimization including sexual crimes. Section 4 is on economic and financial crimes with special focus on measuring levels of corruption in the country over the past three years. Section 5 focuses on fear of crime and perception of safety, measuring how fearful the respondents are of becoming a victim of any type of crime and its impact on their social behaviour. Section 6 looks at community response to crime, trying to find out the measures the respondents take to protect themselves in their homes. Section 7 is road safety and accidents, looking at the level of road accidents in Nigeria and respondents attitudes to road safety issues. Section 8 measures public perception of governments and trust in public authorities in Nigeria. Section 9 is on general perception of crime and criminal justice institutions. Finally, section 10 provides questions that would enable quantitative assessment of human rights
situation in Nigeria.

Objectives

The objectives of the survey are to:

•       Generate reliable complementary data to official statistics on crime, crime levels, perceptions of safety, as well as their geographic, gender and socioeconomic distributions, which would the police, Federal Road Safety Commission and other law enforcement agencies in better deployment of resources.
•       Assess the level of community interest and involvement in crime prevention and crime target hardening measures.
•       Assess attitude of members of the public to justice institutions

The Importance of Crime Victimization Surveys

Crime victimization surveys are conducted around the world because of problems associated with official statistics on crimes. Official crime statistics produced by the police, prisons and the courts are the indicators of criminality and victimization commonly available in most societies. However, such statistics often do not present the whole picture of crime due to dark figures (unreported crimes) and grey figures (reported but unrecorded crimes). In response to the deficiencies associated with official statistics on crime, criminologists developed the crime victimization survey, which involves the study of a sample of a given population to obtain data on the extent of criminal victimization during a particular period, usually during the past year - whether or not detected by or reported
to the police.

Questionnaires are designed to gather information on respondents’ experience of criminal victimization. The surveys provide rich data for understanding the distribution of criminal victimization and the socio-demographic characteristics of victims and criminals; offer information for better understanding of criminality; and consequences of victimization; and extent of fear of crime among different groups in different study locations.

Field Administration of Questionnaire

The field administration of the survey questionnaire is being carried out by the Practical Sampling International (PSI), a reputable social research firm that has worked with the CLEEN Foundation over the years and has conducted similar surveys local and international organizations.

Our Appeal

We appeal to members of the public to welcome the respondents when they visit and provide truthful answers to the questions asked as they will help policy makers in formulation of better policies on crime and safety issues in Nigeria. If in doubt of the identity of the interviewers please contact the survey coordinator, Ms. Shola Omotosho at the following number: 0803-5054066 or e-mail address: shola.omotosho@cleen.org.

If you are interested in receiving summary report of the findings please contact us.

PRESS BRIEFING TO MARK THE COMMENCEMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS TRAINING FOR PERSONNEL OF THE CID, IMO STATE POLICE COMMAND, ORGANISED BY CLEEN FOUNDATION, THIS 9TH DAY OF JUNE, 2011

Good morning your Excellency, the Executive Governor of Imo State; good morning  honourable Commissioner of Police Imo State; good morning officers of the Nigeria Police Force here present, and good morning to you distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the press.

It is my pleasure to welcome you to this press briefing to mark the commencement of this landmark training progamme for the personnel of the CID, Imo State Police Command being organized by CLEEN Foundation.

CLEEN Foundation is a non-governmental organization established in January 1998 with the mission of promoting public safety, security, accessible justice and human rights through the strategies of empirical research, legislative advocacy, demonstration programmes and publications in partnership with government and civil society.  CLEEN Foundation, in view of the security and governance challenges facing the Southeast took the initiative of setting up this Southeast Regional office situate at the centrally located city of Owerri. This Southeast office of CLEEN Foundation was officially inaugurated on the 24th of February, 2011.

There is no gainsaying the fact that the state of insecurity in the Southeast has worsened over the past five years with increasing spate of violence exhibited in kidnapping and political contestation.  Statistics from the 2010 national crime victimization survey conducted by the CLEEN Foundation indicate that Ebonyi, Abia and Imo States have highest levels of kidnapping in Nigeria (CLEEN Foundation, 2010).  Similarly, in the 2006 edition of the survey Abia State ranked first in armed robbery (Alemika and Chukwuma, 2007).  Between 2009 and 2010, there was hardly a day that passed without cases of violent robbery and kidnapping reported in the area.  The villages are no exception as there is increasingly no statistically significant difference between the levels of crime (especially armed robbery and kidnapping) recorded in the cities and those in the villages (Chukwuma, 2009).  For the indigenes, going home has become an ordeal and preparations for it require the kind of security arrangements you would expect in war torn places like Somalia, Sudan and Congo DRC.

Consequently, public and private enterprises that operated in the region and provided jobs to the youths in the past are closing down in droves and thus complicating youth unemployment in the area, which is the highest in the country at 60%.  While private businesses are leaving because of the security situation and poor physical infrastructure, their public counterparts are shutting down mainly as a result of mismanagement, corruption and poor corporate governance among other malfeasance.

In summary the objectives of this Regional office include:

To improve local understanding in the Southeast about the linkage between bad governance and rising state of insecurity in the region as well as their impact on local economy and poverty metrics.

To facilitate critical stakeholders’ consensus and buy-in on a set of priority issues for urgent attention in responding to bad governance and insecurity in the region and piloting their implementation at the local government levels.

To facilitate the adoption of right-based approach to community development by town unions and community development associations in the southeast.


To continuously develop the capacity of law enforcement and security apparata to the end of adopting more effective and efficient crime prevention and control strategies towards enhancing security of lives and property in the region.

To encourage civil society organizations in the southeast to work more professionally and collaboratively.

In view of our commitment to enhancing safety and security, Cleen Foundation engaged the Commissioner of Police Imo State and the Assistant Commissioner of Police in-charge of the Criminal Investigations Department of Imo Police Command, and emerging from our meetings was a consensus on the need to build the capacity of the Police especially officials of the CID on right-based approach to policing.  Respect for Human Rights is at the heart of every civilized society, and the tenets of democracy further strengthens the need for government institutions to be responsive to the rights of the people because democracy is a government that derives its authority and legitimacy from the people.

Adopting a right-based approach to policing will not only ensure the democratization of the Police institution in Nigeria but also will promote its image and integrity, and most importantly improve its professionalism and effectiveness.  It is on this premise that Cleen Foundation undertook to train the personnel of the CID of Imo State Police Command on human rights.  The CID is usually a department that is often challenged by the need to solve crime problems very urgently, and respecting the rights of suspects in such circumstances could pose serious dilemma for them.  This training is therefore aimed at highlighting the extent of Police powers vis-à-vis human rights, and how Police officers can carry out their legal duties without violating those fundamental human rights some of which have internationally assumed the status of jus cogens norms.  Also incorporated into this training are modules on conflict management, listening and anger management skills, which are crucial to effective policing and resolution of potential crime situations.

Cleen Foundation is offering this training free of charge for the Police.  Improving the capacity of the Police to the end of promoting security of lives and property is a matter that is close to the heart of this organization, and we therefore strain our meager resources to provide this very critical training program.  We sincerely hope that men of the CID will diligently apply themselves to this training and internalize the lessons, and indeed put them to practice in the discharge of their legal duties from henceforth.  This exercise will train the entire personnel of the CID of Imo State Police Command numbering over two hundred officers, the idea is to ensure that nobody is left out, and that after the training there will not be any untrained officer that could constitute a negative influence over the trained ones.

Cleen Foundation calls on the Governor of Imo State who has expressed a passionate commitment to promoting security in the state, and all stakeholders on security matters, including you distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the press, and indeed the entire people of Imo State, to support this very apposite programme of training put together by Cleen Foundation.  We also crave your support to our overall agenda in the Southeast, so that together we can make accountable governance and absolute security a reality not only in Imo State but in the Southeast at large.

Thank you for coming and God bless you.

Barr. Francis Chigozie Moneke, LLM (London)
Head, Owerri Office
Cleen Foundation

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