It takes an exceptionally brilliant professional to identify problems but only a professional with an added humane value to be able to trace the roots of problems that affect humanity and be able to satisfactorally address them.
A combination of these skills and genuine humility, unbending dedication is as well rarely found in one individual.
This, and indeed many other virtues that include commitment, decorum and several other positive traits are perhaps part of the reasons why the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari opted to assign the Ministry Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to not only a woman, but a woman of essence: Hajiya Saadiya Umar Farouq.
This much is being proved by the minister’s realisation that in many of the most difficult humanitarian operating environments, the relationship between humanitarian players, armed forces and security actors is adverse, tense and fraught with mistrust and misconceptions due to ineffective communication strategies.
Realising that these challenges impact on interaction at the policy, strategic and operational/tactical levels is further proof of the minister’s ingenuity and the ability to link the tension and mistrust between the military and security forces and humanitarian organisations in North Eastern Nigeria to the recent suspension of the activities of some International non-governmental organisations confirms the extent of her foresight.
It is rare blend of professionalism and humility for the minister to be able to accept while the mandates and guiding principles of the Nigerian Army and humanitarian actors in the North-east are distinctively different, they all play significant roles in maintaining peace, providing security and relief and support to the millions of displaced people in the North-east.
And it takes committed dedication to insist that both the military/security and humanitarian actors in the North-east should work alongside one another with each complementing the efforts of the other.
Working to particularly ensure proper understanding, cooperation and coordination of security and humanitarian activities in the North-east that will result in better cooperation and impact positively on peace keeping and humanitarian aid and support in the North-east speaks volumes of the minister’s abundant courage and availability of extraordinary thinking capacity.
What stands her out as most brilliant is the recent initiative to organise an international workshop on Improving Civil–Security Cooperation (CISEC) in Humanitarian Interventions in The North East scheduled for the 6th to 8th of November, 2019 in Maiduguri, Borno state which is the main theatre of a decade-old deadly insurgency.
This noble initiative to bring as participants experts from government, military, academia, civil society organisations (CSOs) and the International community is, to say the least, bold though necessary.
Without preempting the outcome of the workshop, most Nigerians are already expecting that it will certainly identify issues that hinder information sharing and common priorities and complementarity between security institutions and humanitarian organisations.
Nigerians must therefore identify with the miniter’s stated objective of recognising challenges in implementing the existing CISEC frameworks and to put forward strategies to overcome such challenges.
We hope and pray that at last the minister’s strategic thinking would bear the fruits of outlining a plan of action defining the responsibility of security institutions and humanitarian agencies in implementing the proposals on cooperation.
Musa writes from Unguwar Dosa, Kaduna state
