The government of United States of America (USA) is in discussion with Nigeria on ways to assist the country in surmounting its security challenges by helping to design a nationwide emergency response, planning and coordination.
Speaking at a pre-meeting briefing with the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, and other senior security officers in Abuja on Monday, the acting Deputy Chief of Mission, US embassy, Alan Tousignant, said help in the areas of ministry of defence’s material needs identification, procurement and acquisitions procedures and processes as well as civilian security planning for the North-East will be offered to Nigeria.
He said the effort is in furtherance of the White House Security Governance Initiative (SGI) which was launched during the Africa Summit hosted by President Barrack Obama in 2014 with Nigeria, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Tunisia and Ghana the initial SGI countries.
A draft agreement that would herald the commencement of the initiative is expected to be signed at the end of a 5-day meeting which commenced on Monday in Abuja between senior Nigerian security officers and officials and their US counterparts.
He stated that the initiative was meant to assist African countries to manage security governance and institutions that can effectively and efficiently deliver services and justice to the citizenry.
While noting that provision of training and equipment was not part of the action plan, the envoy said; "instead, it [the initiative] is meant to assist your government to identify the best way to manage your security actors and institutions so that the government of Nigeria can effectively, efficiently and fairly deliver justice and security to its citizens."
He added that: "We have experts from the Department of State, Department of Justice, officers from California National Guard and others who are here to participate in the drafting of a joint country action plan to highlight a roadmap under the security partnership.
On his part, the Nigerian Interior minister noted that the initiative would impact all security agencies in the country, stressing that: "The idea is not to get equipment, but to do things right; at the end of the meeting, we would have a steering committee to oversee the action plan."
Source: Joshua Odeyemi - Daily Trust
Comments