Mrs Kemi Okenyedo is a trained lawyer who also holds a Master’s degree in Humanitarian and Refugee Studies from the University of Lagos.
Mrs Okenyedo, who is the Executive Director of CLEEN Foundation, is Yoruba and married to an Idoma man, Odoh Diego Okenyedo, a writer, journalist and activist poet.
In this chat with ADAM ALQALI, she speaks on her passion for humanitarian work as well as the activities of CLEEN Foundation in the areas of public safety, security affairs and the justice sector reform in Nigeria
Tell us more about yourself
I was born on December 31, 1973 into a family of six; I have an older
brother and 2 younger sisters. My dad is a retired university professor whereas my mum (who is now late) was a midwife. We are Yorubas who hail from Imeko in Ogun State.
I studied Law at the University of Lagos and was called to bar in September 1999. I also hold a Master’s degree in Humanitarian and Refugee Studies, from the same institution, as well as various postgraduate diplomas and certificates in fields like Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E); NGO Management; Security and Defence Management and Policy Advocacy.
I am married to Odoh Diego Okenyedo who is an Idoma from Benue State as such we are one of the few champions of inter-ethnic marriages in Nigeria.
You are a trained lawyer who has been in NGO work throughout most of your working carrier; why did you dump the bar for humanitarian work?
I practiced law for about 3 or 4 years but realized that after all the preparation, you end up going to courts that were not working. I wanted something that was more impactful and interesting as well, I didn’t want to be going to office to do the same thing every day; instead, I liked doing
something that had the flavour of being multi-disciplinary.
So, there was this newspaper advert for the position of program officer at the then Centre for Law Enforcement Education (now CLEEN Foundation) which I applied for and was shortlisted for the interview. I only came second because I didn’t have any background in NGO work. Later, I was invited for another interview and offered the job. I remember, my Executive Director,
Mr Innocent Chukwuma said to me: “We know the job is new to you but we are willing to guide you build your skills.” And that was how I started.
You have been involved with the CLEEN Foundation for most of its existence; how has it been trying to intervene in public safety, security affairs as well as trying to bring about justice sector reform in Nigeria?
When I joined CLEEN in 2003, our programs were more human rights-focused thus I met a program on mainstreaming community policing in Nigeria which was being executed in about 14 local government areas across the six geopolitical zones.
Thus, one could say CLEEN brought community policing to Nigeria. So, I joined the external accountability desk whose focus was gender and was working on gender and policing with the Police Service Commission (PSC).
After we started, we realized the PSC needed more assistance because it was still new as such focusing on gender only won’t allow it achieve its mandate.
With assistance from the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), we developed the external accountability project which was about strengthening the PSC by helping it achieve its mandate. So, we worked with the PSC from its inception stage and helped in the design of its strategic document that would guide Commission in actualising its mandates, in phases.
The first intervention program was on monitoring the conduct of police officers during election which INEC initially resisted because it was new and they couldn’t understand it.
The argument CLEEN, PSC and OSJI kept pushing was that PSC was not going to be monitoring the election; instead, it would only monitor the conduct of police officers during the elections – whereas INEC monitored the entire election. For the first time, an inter-agency platform for the coordination of election security management was set up in Nigeria.
One of CLEEN Foundation’s major areas of work is public safety; how has the Boko Haram insurgency affected public safety in Nigeria in the past 4 years?
The Boko Haram insurgency has drastically changed the face of public safety in the country, especially in the Northeast where things that were being taken for granted in the past, like going to the market, school as well as places of worship are not being taken for granted anymore.
Now, when people step out of their homes, they do so with caution. Our crime victimisation survey of 2013 revealed that perception of safety or security is higher now in private space than in public space because there is always heavy security presence around public spaces like mosques and churches.
Based on the survey, it was obvious; the law enforcement agencies have done well in sensitizing the general public to be security conscious in the public space whereas that is still lacking in the private space.
CLEEN Foundation had in the build-up to the 2015 elections conducted a security risk assessment survey in some states across the North; and which clearly revealed some of the states are violence-prone – before, during and after the 2015 elections. What parameters did you used in arriving at that conclusion?
Actually, we got support from the MacArthur Foundation to conduct security threat assessment and the idea was out of our belief that the story of elections cannot be told on the day of the election. Meaning, there are
numerous incidents that build up before the main Election Day. Thus, as an NGO working in the area of public safety and security, we felt the security risk assessment was part of our contribution to the forthcoming 2015 general elections.
The assessment was based on about 5 key indicators including the history of violence within the region; activities of political parties; as well as the activities of non-state actors – violent and non-violent. It is not hidden that there are several ethnic, religious and socio-cultural groups across the country whose influence over public safety and security cannot be taken for granted.
Our survey revealed as being prone to violence in the North-central, Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa states – as a result of internal conflicts taken place within the states. In Benue, there is the conflict between the Fulanis and the Tivs as well as tensions between the Tivs and Jukuns. In Plateau, there are the perennial ethno-religious clashes. Nasarawa may appear peaceful but there is still the threat of the Ombatse cult as well as restless youth in the Eggon axis.
In the North-east, Borno, Yobe and Adamawa all speak for themselves; being the states under the emergency laws. Taraba is also to be closely watched because of the political crisis between the followers of the acting governor and those of the ailing governor – one that has religious coloration.
In the North-west, Kaduna has a history of violence as such though it may appear peaceful; the state may at any time erupt.
In Kano and Sokoto, the defection of the governors to APC (from PDP) is another source of tension.
Last year, CLEEN Foundation conducted what you called the National Crime Victimisation and Safety Survey which revealed the EFCC as the 6th government agency that was more likely to solicit for bribe.
How did you arrive at that conclusion?
It was actually a public perception survey conducted across the 36 states of the federation including the FCT and there were about 11, 500 persons whom we interviewed for the survey. Different factors determine the perceptions of the public including what we read, see and hear of. I would say the survey was conducted at a time when the EFCC was facing a lot of leadership crisis and the Commission was under heavy criticism for amongst others, the James Ibori saga. Thus, the outcome of the survey was not manufactured in CLEEN’s office and whether or not it was true is a different story.
What we are trying to get the government agencies understand is: if the members of the public have a perception that is not the reality, it means they need to work hard to make them understand and appreciate what they are doing. We have read in the newspapers, the EFCC’s response to that survey and took it in good faith.
The Commission also acknowledged that there were fake EFCC officials parading themselves as EFCC agents, which means members of the public are having difficulties differentiating between fake and real EFCC agents. The good thing is that they have set up a department to which members of the public can lodge complains concerning such fake agents, yet, the question is how many of us have information on how to contact the department; which means they also need to do more by publicizing it. Moreover, it is only when these corruption cases are handled in a transparent manner that people would have faith in the anti-corruption agencies.
In February 2012, your Foundation started an extortion reporting website How has the platform been exposing acts of extortion and corruption in Nigeria?
When we started that project, we weren’t sure whether or not it would succeed, however, shortly after the site was launched, people began to use their smartphones to do more than just calling, texting and chatting – by posting pictures and videos of public officials requesting for bribe.
We are now working with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to address the issue of bribery and corruption in the NPF and they have a unit at the
Force Headquarters whose work is monitoring the website. Beginning from December last year, citizens are now receiving feedbacks on steps that have been taken towards addressing complains they have reported on the platform from the police headquarters.
Overtime, we have realized that most of the charges come from the Lagos axis which means there is need for creating more awareness on the website – since Nigeria is much bigger than Lagos. We are also taking into cognisance our different peculiarities as not all persons are inclined to using the social media; some are more inclined to texting while others voice calls.
Though the number of complains being reported on the platform have increased tremendously, we are planning to do more sensitization this year by promoting the platform to critical stakeholders across the nation.
In Lagos, we want to promote it to the market women and members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) by organising town hall meetings to sensitize them on how to use the platform. We also hope to take the campaign to schools – from primary to tertiary level.
In the Southeast, we are looking at tertiary institutions as well as community associations and unions, whereas in the North, we are looking at supporting smaller NGOs to promote the campaign through associations like the road transport workers union.
The idea behind getting different audiences in different regions is because the trend of bribery and corruption varies across the nation. For example, in the Southeast, there is a sort of commercialization of human rights violation as people are using the police to maltreat their foes. As such, moneybags are using the police to show their enemies how influential they are. We also have radio jingles sensitising people on how to report corruption cases in Lagos, Abuja and Owerri.
Tell us more about yourself
I was born on December 31, 1973 into a family of six; I have an older
brother and 2 younger sisters. My dad is a retired university professor whereas my mum (who is now late) was a midwife. We are Yorubas who hail from Imeko in Ogun State.
I studied Law at the University of Lagos and was called to bar in September 1999. I also hold a Master’s degree in Humanitarian and Refugee Studies, from the same institution, as well as various postgraduate diplomas and certificates in fields like Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E); NGO Management; Security and Defence Management and Policy Advocacy.
I am married to Odoh Diego Okenyedo who is an Idoma from Benue State as such we are one of the few champions of inter-ethnic marriages in Nigeria.
You are a trained lawyer who has been in NGO work throughout most of your working carrier; why did you dump the bar for humanitarian work?
I practiced law for about 3 or 4 years but realized that after all the preparation, you end up going to courts that were not working. I wanted something that was more impactful and interesting as well, I didn’t want to be going to office to do the same thing every day; instead, I liked doing
something that had the flavour of being multi-disciplinary.
So, there was this newspaper advert for the position of program officer at the then Centre for Law Enforcement Education (now CLEEN Foundation) which I applied for and was shortlisted for the interview. I only came second because I didn’t have any background in NGO work. Later, I was invited for another interview and offered the job. I remember, my Executive Director,
Mr Innocent Chukwuma said to me: “We know the job is new to you but we are willing to guide you build your skills.” And that was how I started.
You have been involved with the CLEEN Foundation for most of its existence; how has it been trying to intervene in public safety, security affairs as well as trying to bring about justice sector reform in Nigeria?
When I joined CLEEN in 2003, our programs were more human rights-focused thus I met a program on mainstreaming community policing in Nigeria which was being executed in about 14 local government areas across the six geopolitical zones. Thus, one could say CLEEN brought community policing to Nigeria. So, I joined the external accountability desk whose focus was gender and was working on gender and policing with the Police Service Commission (PSC).
After we started, we realized the PSC needed more assistance because it was still new as such focusing on gender only won’t allow it achieve its mandate.
With assistance from the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), we developed the external accountability project which was about strengthening the PSC by helping it achieve its mandate. So, we worked with the PSC from its inception stage and helped in the design of its strategic document that would guide Commission in actualising its mandates, in phases.
The first intervention program was on monitoring the conduct of police officers during election which INEC initially resisted because it was new and they couldn’t understand it. The argument CLEEN, PSC and OSJI kept pushing was that PSC was not going to be monitoring the election; instead, it would only monitor the conduct of police officers during the elections – whereas INEC monitored the entire election. For the first time, an inter-agency platform for the coordination of election security management was set up in Nigeria.
One of CLEEN Foundation’s major areas of work is public safety; how has the Boko Haram insurgency affected public safety in Nigeria in the past 4 years?
The Boko Haram insurgency has drastically changed the face of public safety in the country, especially in the Northeast where things that were being taken for granted in the past, like going to the market, school as well as places of worship are not being taken for granted anymore. Now, when people step out of their homes, they do so with caution. Our crime victimisation survey of 2013 revealed that perception of safety or security is higher now in private space than in public space because there is always heavy security presence around public spaces like mosques and churches.
Based on the survey, it was obvious; the law enforcement agencies have done well in sensitizing the general public to be security conscious in the public space whereas that is still lacking in the private space.
CLEEN Foundation had in the build-up to the 2015 elections conducted a security risk assessment survey in some states across the North; and which clearly revealed some of the states are violence-prone – before, during and after the 2015 elections. What parameters did you used in arriving at that conclusion?
Actually, we got support from the MacArthur Foundation to conduct security threat assessment and the idea was out of our belief that the story of elections cannot be told on the day of the election. Meaning, there are
numerous incidents that build up before the main Election Day. Thus, as an NGO working in the area of public safety and security, we felt the security risk assessment was part of our contribution to the forthcoming 2015 general elections.
The assessment was based on about 5 key indicators including the history of violence within the region; activities of political parties; as well as the activities of non-state actors – violent and non-violent. It is not hidden that there are several ethnic, religious and socio-cultural groups across the country whose influence over public safety and security cannot be taken for granted.
Our survey revealed as being prone to violence in the North-central, Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa states – as a result of internal conflicts taken place within the states. In Benue, there is the conflict between the Fulanis and the Tivs as well as tensions between the Tivs and Jukuns. In Plateau, there are the perennial ethno-religious clashes. Nasarawa may appear peaceful but there is still the threat of the Ombatse cult as well as restless youth in the Eggon axis.
In the North-east, Borno, Yobe and Adamawa all speak for themselves; being the states under the emergency laws. Taraba is also to be closely watched because of the political crisis between the followers of the acting governor and those of the ailing governor – one that has religious coloration.
In the North-west, Kaduna has a history of violence as such though it may appear peaceful; the state may at any time erupt.
In Kano and Sokoto, the defection of the governors to APC (from PDP) is another source of tension.
Last year, CLEEN Foundation conducted what you called the National Crime Victimisation and Safety Survey which revealed the EFCC as the 6th government agency that was more likely to solicit for bribe.
How did you arrive at that conclusion?
It was actually a public perception survey conducted across the 36 states of the federation including the FCT and there were about 11, 500 persons whom we interviewed for the survey. Different factors determine the perceptions of the public including what we read, see and hear of. I would say the survey was conducted at a time when the EFCC was facing a lot of leadership crisis and the Commission was under heavy criticism for amongst others, the James Ibori saga. Thus, the outcome of the survey was not manufactured in CLEEN’s office and whether or not it was true is a different story.
What we are trying to get the government agencies understand is: if the members of the public have a perception that is not the reality, it means they need to work hard to make them understand and appreciate what they are doing. We have read in the newspapers, the EFCC’s response to that survey and took it in good faith.
The Commission also acknowledged that there were fake EFCC officials parading themselves as EFCC agents, which means members of the public are having difficulties differentiating between fake and real EFCC agents. The good thing is that they have set up a department to which members of the public can lodge complains concerning such fake agents, yet, the question is how many of us have information on how to contact the department; which means they also need to do more by publicizing it. Moreover, it is only when these corruption cases are handled in a transparent manner that people would have faith in the anti-corruption agencies.
In February 2012, your Foundation started an extortion reporting website How has the platform been exposing acts of extortion and corruption in Nigeria?
When we started that project, we weren’t sure whether or not it would succeed, however, shortly after the site was launched, people began to use their smartphones to do more than just calling, texting and chatting – by posting pictures and videos of public officials requesting for bribe.
We are now working with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to address the issue of bribery and corruption in the NPF and they have a unit at the
Force Headquarters whose work is monitoring the website. Beginning from December last year, citizens are now receiving feedbacks on steps that have been taken towards addressing complains they have reported on the platform from the police headquarters.
Overtime, we have realized that most of the charges come from the Lagos axis which means there is need for creating more awareness on the website – since Nigeria is much bigger than Lagos. We are also taking into cognisance our different peculiarities as not all persons are inclined to using the social media; some are more inclined to texting while others voice calls.
Though the number of complains being reported on the platform have increased tremendously, we are planning to do more sensitization this year by promoting the platform to critical stakeholders across the nation.
In Lagos, we want to promote it to the market women and members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) by organising town hall meetings to sensitize them on how to use the platform. We also hope to take the campaign to schools – from primary to tertiary level.
In the Southeast, we are looking at tertiary institutions as well as community associations and unions, whereas in the North, we are looking at supporting smaller NGOs to promote the campaign through associations like the road transport workers union.
The idea behind getting different audiences in different regions is because the trend of bribery and corruption varies across the nation. For example, in the Southeast, there is a sort of commercialization of human rights violation as people are using the police to maltreat their foes. As such, moneybags are using the police to show their enemies how influential they are. We also have radio jingles sensitising people on how to report corruption cases in Lagos, Abuja and Owerri.
