By Gift Samuel, The Sight News
Abuja-The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps(NSCDC) in conjunction with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung(KAF) on Monday began the training of Peace Officers of the NSCDC drawn from the 36 states of the federation including FCT on mediation skills.
The Commandant General of the NSCDC, Abdullahi Muhammadu who made the disclosure at the Opening Ceremony of the 5-Day training, stressed that the need for capacity building as a tool for effective service delivery remains crucial for any organization that upholds the culture of hard work and diligence, adding that KAS has become the epicenter around which the NSCDC peace building efforts revolves.
The CG who was represented by the Ag.DCG, Crisis Management Directorate Dr. Emmanuel Adeoye, stated that the top priority on his agenda is to ensure that the corps takes its rightful place among the front line security institutions in the country.
According to him; “This year’s edition is meant to be a follow up to the previous stages and to give room to the expansion in the number of chartered peace officers for the corps.
“The NSCDC is out to mediate, interrelate and build peace within warring factions in the society, ranging from land disputes through religious differences and political problems too. The 36 states and the FCT have department of peace and conflict manangement which ensures that they avoid litigation or violence in their states by way of dialogue to reach a win-win situation”.
While expressing believe that at the end of the training, officers would have learnt a great deal of systematic skills required to effectively manage conflict and be peace builders in the realisation of the national peace architecture,he implored the selected peace officers to make the best use of the exercise to enhance their future engagements towards peace advocacy, peace building and conflict management that may arise within and around the country.
Earlier, The KAS Resident Representative, Hildegard Behrendt-Kigozi noted that the training is very important for the peace officers to enhance their already existent capabilities and to minimize conflicts to the barest minimum.
She said; “The NSCDC have a good role to play to convince the people that they are there for them to help them contain neighborhood peace and whatever peace is needed in order also to continue with their daily business and living. One of the works of NSCDS is also mediation and we did two trainings before on peace and conflict management but we thought that it is very good they get the full course as mediators in order to know more and to enhance their work in the country.
Behrendt-Kigozi who expressed displeasure that security forces are not commensurate to the number of citizens, said that it has led to the trainings and the collaboration which started since 2014, stating that the participating officers will be issued certificates that can be used professionally within and outside NSCDC.
The 2017 edition of the training had representatives from every state of the federation who will be trained to become professional meditators to resolve conflicts in their various locations.
