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USAID/OTI Nigeria Field Report
February 2001
Program Description
The Office of Transition Initiatives' (OTI) principal mission in Nigeria is to sustain the current transition toward national reconciliation and democracy. The FY2001 budget is $6 million. The majority of OTI's grants are to civil society groups, local governments, and community and media organizations focusing on conflict management, public awareness of key reform issues, and civil society development. The bulk of program activities on civilian-military relations and police reform are funded out of OTI headquarters in Washington, DC.
OTI's Nigeria program has offices in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano and works with Louis Berger International to implement the program. OTI is scheduled to complete its program in Nigeria in September 2001, handing off activities to other USAID offices, USG agencies, Nigerian and U.S.-based non-governmental organizations, and other donors.
Country Situation
In an attempt to limit state claims to resource control, the federal government asked the Nigerian Supreme Court to agree with its interpretation that state boundaries end at the waterline. If the federal government's case is successful, only the revenue obtained from onshore resources would be subject to allocation among all tiers of government. Nigeria's large offshore oil and natural gas deposits would fall under the exclusive control of the federal government. In response, the 17 southern governors and the caucus of southern legislators in the National Assembly met to develop a common defense. The southern politicians also accused the federal government of inconsistency in challenging state claims to resource control but not challenging claims by northern states to the constitutionality of instituting Islamic Sharia law.
Bauchi and Kaduna became the latest northern states to adopt the Sharia legal system. The Governor of Bauchi has signed the bill into law, while the Kaduna State Assembly has passed the bill that authorizes the creation of Sharia courts in the state. In those states where Sharia has already been introduced, pressure is mounting for more vigorous enforcement. In Katsina, the Independent Committee for the Implementation and Monitoring of Sharia warned the state government to be more diligent in implementing Sharia. The committee criticized the Ministry of Justice and the Sharia Commission, a group established by the state government to provide input into the implementation of Sharia that includes government and civil society and both Christians and Muslims. The committee charged that they conspired to subvert the system, saying that these institutions jointly constitute "a clog in the wheel of Sharia's progress." The committee demanded total enforcement of the ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol, revocation of tenancy agreements held by single women, and appropriate use of the Sharia court system. In Kano, a private Muslim group calling itself "the Hisba Sharia Implementation Committee" claimed responsibility for burning a truck transporting alcohol to a military barracks and imposing a sentence of 80 lashes on a liquor distributor. The growing assertiveness of fundamental Islamic groups, including threats to resort to vigilantes to ensure full implementation of Sharia, is straining relations with state governments.
The scarcity of gasoline, which started weeks ago, spread to all parts of the country including Lagos, the commercial center, and Abuja, the federal capital. Long queues at gas stations impeded the free flow of traffic in major cities. There is no clear explanation about the sudden scarcity, but there is a general belief that the government is taking advantage of the scarcity to make a case for deregulating gasoline prices. Meanwhile, Nigeria's central labor organization is mobilizing workers for a strike in the event that government takes any action that results in higher gas prices.
OTI Highlights
A. Narrative Summary
To further enhance the impact of its conflict mediation and management program, OTI sponsored a one-day National Colloquium on Conflict Management and Resolution in Abuja for alumni of the influential National Institute of Political and Strategic Studies. The colloquium brought together 68 senior policy makers from key sectors of Nigerian society. Two members of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders' Network (CRESNET), which is being nurtured by OTI, facilitated the colloquium. Participants praised the program, noting that their perceptions of conflict had changed. They now realized that conflict, if properly managed, can produce positive change. In a closing communiqué, the colloquium participants committed themselves to peaceful resolution of disputes and to deepening democracy. The communiqué was presented to the representative of Nigeria's Vice President at the association's annual dinner that evening.
OTI held a series of interventions in the Lagos State slaughterhouse at Oko-Oba. These activities were meant to prevent another potentially destabilizing ethnic conflict in the state, reminiscent of the October 2000 eruption that left hundreds dead and thousands of homes and businesses destroyed. OTI's intervention took several forms, including fact-finding missions to separate truth from rumors, a media campaign designed to promote peaceful conflict resolution during the initial escalation of tensions, and a visit to the state governor to ensure full government cooperation and participation in a series of conflict management and joint problem-solving workshops.
The initial workshop was organized and facilitated by CRESNET's southwest zonal chapter. Participants were drawn from various groups representing the largely Hausa cattle dealers and the predominantly Yoruba butchers. Also participating were representatives from community associations, the Lagos State government, the Local Government Council, and the slaughterhouse's management company.
The second phase of the intervention will be a training program on peace advocacy, lobbying and networking for a 25-member peace committee selected from the first phase. This committee will provide a forum to maintain communication between the various stakeholders and provide oversight for the implementation of agreed-upon actions.
OTI/Abuja continued its conflict mediation and management program in the north central state of Kwara. To complement a media campaign for tolerance and inter-faith cooperation, workshops were held for such key stakeholder groups as women, youth, traditional leaders, and community workers. The workshops were organized by a coalition of local civil society groups.
B. Grants Activity Summary
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Obligated funds1(US$)
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Number of grants / contracts
|
| Abuja
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0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| Kano
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
9,786
|
9,786
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
| Lagos
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56,861
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
56,861
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
| Port Harcourt
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| Total Feb 2001
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56,861
|
0
|
0
|
9,786
|
66,647
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
| Total since April 1999
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2,364,135
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1,548,270
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464,330
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3,949,203
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8,325,938
|
80
|
10
|
29
|
100
|
219
|
Notes:
1Grants are attributed to the office that obligated the funds, and not to the location(s) of grant-funded activities.
2The "Other" category includes grants for energy sector, media and anti-corruption programs among others.
C. Indicators of
Success
- OTI's interventions in Oko-Oba helped defuse tensions in the Lagos State slaughterhouse, the scene of a devastating conflict in October 2000. The interventions included a series of workshops. Over three days, the workshops managed to dispel rumors, clarify the winners and losers from the ongoing conflict, and build bridges between disputants who had begun the process with hardened positions.
- While the coalition of civil society groups was holding conflict mediation and management workshops in Kwara (brought together and sponsored by OTI), the coalition's coordinator was asked to mediate a conflict between students and administrators at the Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara State. The college had been closed down for more than nine months as a result of student riots. Before the end of the workshops, the coordinator's mediation paid off, as the government announced that the polytechnic would be reopened in April.
- The national colloquium on conflict management and resolution was a good example of leveraging the effort of other institutions. OTI took advantage of the annual dinner of the Alumni Association of the influential National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies to conduct conflict management training for an influential group. In this way, OTI was able to reach key policy makers at relatively low cost.
D. Program Appraisal
A visit by OTI's Program Development Team Leader to OTI/Nigeria to collect data on program evaluation prompted considerable reflection on the impact of OTI programs. After various discussions with program staff, it became clear that in many instances of the conflict mitigation programming, impact has not been well documented. Despite the difficulties of measuring the effects of these activities, OTI/Nigeria committed itself to fully incorporating results reporting into future programming.
NEXT STEPS/IMMEDIATE PRIORITIES
To assist the newly-created government Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution to orient its program staff, OTI is holding a needs-assessment meeting with directors of the institute on March 16 to identify areas of collaboration.
After two months of reflection and planning for programmatic hand-over, all of the offices are gearing up to increase grant approval activity substantially in March.
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