Preliminary Statement Issued by the National Human Rights Commission and the CLEEN Foundation on the Conduct of Security Officials in the National Assembly Election. The CLEEN Foundation and the Nigerian National Human Rights Commission, April 2011.
Observers of Nigeria’s parliamentary elections, the first of three national polls in the space of 2 weeks, found that security officers performed well and that reforms to polling procedures from previous election cycles have notably improved security. Nevertheless, isolated bombings, assassinations, and other acts of violence in the lead up to the elections underscore the need for robust and responsible police and security presence at voting and collation centers at the forthcoming gubernatorial elections to contribute to a credible process.
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Key Issues in Nigeria’s 2011 Elections. Sola Tayo. Chatham House, 2011.
Nigeria’s 2011 national elections may mark a seminal point in the country’s continuing democratic progress, resulting in a more positive and balanced playing field among the major political parties. The legitimacy of the polls, in fact, will assist winners in confronting many old and new challenges to stability, including corruption, sub-optimal development, increasingly disillusioned youth, and the country’s multiple security hot spots.
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Police and Policing in Nigeria: Final Report on the Conduct of the Police in the 2003 Elections. A joint report of the Police Service Commission, CLEEN Foundation and partner organizations. CLEEN Foundation, 2003.
In coordination with Nigerian civil society representatives, UN agencies, and the UK Department for International Development, Nigeria’s Police Service Commission reviewed police adherence to a code of conduct during the 2003 elections. When present, the police did provide security for orderly voting at polling stations, though were often armed, arrived late, and many were not politically neutral. Nor did police provide adequate security for the storage and transport of voting materials. These findings provide a focus for electoral reform efforts leading up to the 2011 polls.
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From ‘Pirates’ to ‘Militants’: A Historical Perspective on Anti-State and Anti-Oil Company Mobilization Among the Ijaw of Warri, Western Niger Delta. By Ukoha Ukiwo. African Affairs, 2009
Security conditions in the Niger Delta have evolved into a full fledged insurgency. While many analysts have cast insurgents as criminal syndicates that engage in violence for profit, the groups’ aims, strategies, and recruits are often motivated by politics. Most have roots in youth groups first formed in the early 1990s among the Ijaw ethnic group that sought political redistricting and electoral changes. Comparatively peaceful groups gradually escalated into tactically proficient and media savvy insurgents.
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China and Nigeria. By Pat Utomi. Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2009.
A Nigerian scholar interviews Nigerians from government ministries, local governments, and the business community as well as several Chinese, American and European representatives in Nigeria to survey perspectives of a growing relationship between Africa’s and Asia’s most populous countries. Pat Utomi reveals the nuance behind often over-simplified notions of the China-Nigeria dynamic. Chinese aid in infrastructure and agriculture has been welcomed for its efficiency and even garnered a relatively positive reputation in the volatile Niger Delta. Nigerian businessmen also have adopted profitable techniques and models through joint ventures. Yet the relationship has also featured trade disputes and complaints over human rights and “slave wage” Chinese labor practices. Perhaps most interestingly, many Nigerian foreign affairs officials expect a marked shift in China’s policy of non-interference and foresee Beijing eventually seeking to influence political issues at the national and local level. Utomi concludes with a series of recommendations for Nigeria, foremost among them that the government craft a strategy to optimize the beneficial aspects of both Western and Chinese interests in Nigeria.
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Nigeria: Seizing the Moment in the Niger Delta. International Crisis Group, 2009.
A sobering account of the significant obstacles to peace in the volatile Niger Delta region of Nigeria from the International Crisis Group. This ICG policy briefing chronicles the escalating crisis in the Niger Delta that now includes frequent kidnapping, criminal activity, maritime insecurity and organized attacks. Militants from the Delta are in fact thought responsible for recent attacks in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. The Nigerian government’s response has been “ambiguous ” according to ICG. However, the momentum and unity of Niger Delta militants and political actors seems to be faltering, and ICG sees a window of opportunity for the Nigerian President to implement a series of recommendations devised by a committee convened in 2008 to review the entirety of government policies in the region.
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Criminal Force? An Interim Report on the Nigeria Police Force. Network on Police Reform in Nigeria, 2007.
A study conducted by a Nigerian NGO finds that the nation’s police have a mounting reputation for human rights abuses and criminal activity. The three-year study of over 400 police stations in 14 Nigerian states provides an analysis of the police as an institution, its personnel, and a series of recommendations for the Nigerian presidency, state governments, judiciary, human rights commission, and international partners.
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Report of Technical Committee on the Niger Delta. Technical Committee on the Niger Delta, 2008.
A report delivered by a special committee convened by the Nigerian government to assess government policy and activities to address the growing conflict in the Niger Delta.
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