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USAID/OTI Nigeria Field Report
December 2000
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 USG agencies, Nigerian and U.S.-based non-governmental organizations, and other donors. Country Situation
For the first time in decades, Christians and Muslims celebrated their highest holy days at the same time. The overlap of Christmas and Ramadan initially was feared as an occasion that would heighten inter-religious tension and lead to violent conflict. Instead, political and community leaders throughout the country used the holiday period to preach peace and tolerance. The major cities emptied as people traveled to their home villages to celebrate with close relations, and a blanket of calm enveloped the country. The spirit of the holy season was also noticeable in the relations between the President and the National Assembly. The 2001 Appropriation Bill was passed in record time by the National Assembly and immediately signed into law by the President. This is a concrete indication of what both sides promised would be a more cooperative relationship between the legislative and executive branches during the coming year.
The end of the year also provided political analysts and democracy watchers an opportunity to conduct post-mortem analyses of political issues and events of the year, and identify significant issues for the year to come. Among those issues identified as likely to dominate national discourse this year are: the debate over the introduction of a national identity card and its connection to voter registration, the results of the ongoing constitutional review, controversy over the organization and conduct of the decennial census, the potential politicization of the creation of state-level electoral commissions that will oversee local government elections in 2002, and increasing jockeying for political advantage for the 2003 national elections. Already a split has emerged among the Yoruba where a new Elders Forum has been created to challenge the existing leadership of the cultural interest group, Afenifere. Another emerging split is generational. A group of prominent "youth", including governors and members of the National Assembly, have formed the Nigeria Integration Group to press for greater leadership responsibilities for those under 50. In the north, a new youth group named the Arewa Youth Summit has been formed, challenging the authority of the Arewa Consultative Forum. Many see growing youth advocacy as a potentially destabilizing factor in upcoming elections. OTI Highlights
A. Narrative Summary
A major initiative to reform the police force concluded a first phase of activities in December. During the first phase OTI partnered with the British Department for International Development (DFID) and the Government of Nigeria (GON) to develop an implementation plan for reform. The implementation plan was designed to flow from a strategic planning process, which included all six departments of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Ministry of Police Affairs (MPA) and civil society groups, through the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN). An important first step was the development and acceptance of a common mission statement and articulation of core values for the police. With that foundation, teams comprising both police officials and civilians focused on various aspects of police practice to develop a comprehensive reform plan. The document lays out fundamental goals for the organization, as well as strategies to achieve those goals. The document is meant to be a "living" document in that it will continue to be refined and updated over time. Specific details, such as budgetary implications, will be added as the process continues.
In a cable sent at the conclusion of the work, the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria applauded OTI's efforts to jumpstart police reform. According to the cable, the importance of police reform for Nigeria's long-term political stability and economic growth cannot be overstated, nor can the magnitude of the task. OTI will continue to work on this critical issue, with plans to hand-off long-term activities to the Nigerian government, the USAID Mission, DFID and other donors.
In anticipation of heightened religious tension during the Muslim and Christian holidays, the Kano office launched a media campaign that stressed tolerance and peaceful co-existence among ethnic and religious communities. In the northwest zone, Haske Media Service, a Sokoto-based media non-governmental organization, ran a series of radio public service announcements covering Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states. The Borno Coalition for Democracy and Progress, another local non-governmental organization based in Maiduguri, ran a similar set of messages in the Northeast zone.
The Port Harcourt office has continued to address the issue of communal conflicts that plague Nigeria's Niger Delta. It sponsored three workshops in the critical local government areas of Amassoma (Bayelsa), Odi Township (Bayelsa State) and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni (Rivers State). These three programs targeted youth who have been leading the violent struggle for resource control currently at the center of Nigeria's political crisis. Odi, a community of 600,000, is a special case. In November 1999, it was razed by federal troops in response to the spontaneous killings of policemen who went to capture criminal elements in the community. The military left several hundred dead and only two buildings standing. A conflict mitigation program was conducted there to assist the community come to grips with their current situation and try to channel lingering anger and grief into peaceful advocacy for change. In Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, the seat of several oil producing communities with deep-seated communal conflicts, efforts last year by the state government and the National Assembly to resolve the conflicts by creating peace committees failed. OTI has been more successful in applying its facilitative conflict mediation approach to assist the communities to devise solutions for themselves.
B. Grants Activity Summary
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Obligated funds (USD)
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Number of grants
approved
|
| Abuja
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65,739
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
65,739
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
| Kano
|
87,770
|
0
|
8,898
|
0
|
96,668
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
| Lagos
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| Port Harcourt
|
60,965
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
60,965
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
| Total Dec 2000
|
214,474
|
0
|
8,898
|
0
|
223,372
|
6
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
7
|
| Total since April 1999
|
2,217,549
|
1,548,270
|
401,139
|
3,904,678
|
8,071,636
|
73
|
10
|
27
|
99
|
209
|
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
The progress achieved during the first phase of the OTI-sponsored police reform program was widely hailed by those inside and outside the government. Not only did the U.S. Embassy write a laudatory assessment of the accomplishments, but both the Minister of Police Affairs and the Inspector General of the Nigerian Police Force were so pleased with the newly developed mission statement and list of core values that the Minister decided to give out plaques bearing the new vision as Christmas gifts.
During the month, OTI completed an internal review of its conflict mediation activities. Based on extensive open-ended interviews with participants, the draft report provides a compelling testimony of the impact that OTI's facilitative conflict mediation and management approach has had on a variety of conflicts in the country. For example, OTI organized a workshop for the Niger Delta communities of Orika and Eleme, neighboring villages caught in an escalating cycle of violence rooted in competing claims for oil-producing land. As a result of the workshop, a peace committee was formed. More importantly, as one Eleme village elder put it, "We learned that we gain nothing from conflict and that when we fail to work together, we lose... We learned that many of the things we thought about the Orika are the same things they feared about us." He concluded, "We are now equipped to prevent conflicts from erupting." Since the OTI workshop, violence has ceased.
These and other stories will be put together in a report that describes the facilitative approach to conflict mitigation that OTI supports.
D. Program Appraisal
The program used the quiet period of the end of year to begin drafting an explicit exit strategy that includes plans for the hand over of key programs and of OTI offices and equipment by September 2001. NEXT STEPS/IMMEDIATE PRIORITIES
Once an initial draft of the exit strategy has been prepared, it will form the basis of consultations with the USAID Mission, the U.S. Embassy, USAID implementing partners, and non-governmental organizations in January. The aim is to obtain general agreement on the strategy by January 31.
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