UNDP thumbs up NSCDC’s conflict resolution mechanism

A civil society group, Citizens Watch Advocacy Initiative (CWAI), has hailed the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), led by its commandant-general, Abdullahi Gana Muhaamdu, for amicably resolving cases and/or disputes

This is coming on the heels of the recent commendations and endorsement by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which praised the tremendous efforts by the Peace and Conflict Management Department of the NSCDC.

Speaking at a recent refresher course and review session for NSCDC peace department officers at the corps headquarters, the team leader, Governance and Peace Building Unit, Mr. Matthew Alao, said the feat was unprecedented.

According to him, the NSCDC resolved over 12,144 cases in 2016; 13,377 in 2017 and 13,646 in 2018, respectively.                                

These were contained in a statement issued Friday in Abuja by the executive secretary of CWAI, Omoba Kenneth Aigbegbele.

The statement indicated that the group re-emphasised the “importance of conflict and dispute resolution in today’s issues based and conflict management” and applauded the management of NSCDC for “thinking beyond the contemporary box and finding lasting solutions to today’s crisis-prone society, where conflicts have become the order of the day.”

 It added that the representative of UNDP said the organisation had discovered that it was better to invest more on training NSCDC in peace resolution than spending money to purchase weapons.

“The UNDP will also create a department in the Nigerian Police so as to complement what the NSCDC is doing and urged the trained officers in the Corps Peace Unit to continue to do what he described as a good job of conflict resolution; as such efforts are always appreciated, according to him. He said “Because of your achievement, it is better to invest more in you (Peace and Conflict Department) than in buying weapons for the organisation,” Alao stated.

Responding on behalf of the NSCDC, the commandant-general said, “Only peace desk officers from the North-West and North Central geo-political zones were invited for the five-day refresher-workshop due to the present menace in these zones and said subsequent training to be conducted will capture all other zones, respectively.”

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