Workshop
Details
The Country Representative of KAS, Mrs. Hildegard Behrendt-Kigozi welcome the participants, and introduced the visitor from KAS headquarters, Ms. Andrea Ostheimer de Sosa.
Nigeria as a country is facing many security challenges, which can be simplified by analyzing the conflicts on state or city basis. Many violent conflicts have taken place in Nigeria over the past decades, and they mostly looked like religious conflicts, but in reality, they were ethnic conflicts with religious coloration.
Many citizens of Nigeria cannot enjoy all their civic and human rights because of where they live, which determines whether they are called settler, or indigenes. The settlers may be able to vote, but not voted for. They may not be able to possess landed properties, or may pay more school fees for their children then the indigenes. This indigene-settler problem and competition for control of the scarce resources are causes of constant conflicts in Nigeria. How can the citizens concerned deal with this problem is the topic of the paper presented by Prof. Tajudeen Akanji at the seminar.
Prof. Isaac Olawale Albert on his part delivered a paper titled ‘Dimensions of Security Management in a Multi Ethnic Community’ which looked at who has a role to play in managing security challenges in a multi ethnic community. He explained what constitutes a multi ethnic community and the dimensions of security management and how to apply them to the management of security in a multi ethnic community.
A third paper was presented by Dr. Willie Eselebor on ‘Cultural Influence in Security Management – Lessons from a Multi Ethnic City’ which looked at the impact cultures have in promoting conflicts through prejudice and discrimination , instead of using cultures as tool of conflict resolution.
A sessions for question and answers and interactions was fruitfully utilized by the participants who appreciated their host community, Ibadan, and promised to deliver the messages on importance of security to the people in the communities. Traditional leaders ask for a follow up.
Amongst the participants were the Igbo community, South-South community, the Hausa community, the Ibira community and many other security stakeholders like the Nigeria Police Force, Department of State Services, the Nigeria Army, vigilante groups, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and many others.
Ms. Andrea Ostheimer de Sosa appreciated all participants for their time and contributions in her closing remarks.