The need for African countries to collectively take charge of myriads of security challenges plaguing the continent recently received a boost with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Security Watch Africa Initiatives (SWAI) and Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in South Africa. PRECIOUS IGBONWELUNDU reports
From the Horn of Africa down to its tail and across the Gulfs of Guinea and Eden, the African Continent has been plagued with myriads of security challenges.
Wars arising from boundary disputes, ethnic strives, farmers’/herders’ conflicts, religious intolerance, terrorism, banditry as well as feelings of injustice, inequality and marginalisation have, for many decades, robbed countries on the African Continent desired peace and unity to thrive.
Over the years, the world’s greatest continent in terms of natural and mineral resources deposit has relied on off-the-shelve remedies sourced from European, American and Asian countries and firms which have hardly solved the problems, a development that led to the clamour for African-made solutions to Africa’s challenges.
At several international security forums, stakeholders always agreed that introducing country-specific security and safety training curricula was a major step in addressing the problems but not much actions were taken in that direction until last month when the Security Watch Africa Initiatives (SWAI) and Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) entered into an agreement in South Africa to localise trainings.
Propelled by his belief that no meaningful development can take place without security, the President and CEO, SWAI, Patrick Agbambu led a delegation to the South African University in February to foster collaborations and drive the process of localised trainings for police officers and those in correctional services.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will, among other things, pioneer scholarly contributions on the need for a unified security structure in Africa, human rights, proper and professional policing, certification as well as trigger research into security challenges with a view to developing country-specific local solutions that will help agencies saddled with such responsibilities.
Agbambu said he was looking forward to a very successful implementation of the MoU because it would help to improve safety and security in Africa. The implementation, he said, will start with security agencies in West Africa- Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia and Sierra Leone.
“Right now, we have gotten several approvals. We are only waiting for this MoU so that we can activate all that has been setup for the start up.
I want to promise that it is not just going to end at the document signing level. We are going to kick off immediately to ensure that it is a reality so that Africa will benefit from this.
“I have also said that there is no meaningful development that can take place in Africa or any part of the world if security is not taken care of.
The biggest challenges we have in Africa is the issue of security and I believe that once it’s taken care of, then every other development starts.
“In West Africa, we are happy because we identified this department in this university. This is the only university we can boast of that offers security and research programmes and traffic management and there are millions of personnel who want to advance their future if only they can get it.
“That is why we are happy with this department, particularly, with the various programmes, the online programme and the certification programmes coming up.
At the end, it is to have a better Africa and I also key into the slogan of the university which is ‘to empower people’.
“We want to empower our people to ensure that security becomes better on our continent.
“I believe that for people to actually call themselves professionals, they need to study the field very effectively. In Nigeria, all parts of West Africa, and largely most African countries, in the study of policing, we have police officials who practically did not study policing.
“So, we identified a university in South Africa that offers not just degree programme but up to Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Policing, Correctional Services and Traffic Management. We believe that there is need to offer opportunity to the personnel.
“In line with our vision of Africa being able to solve its own problem; many a times you see African countries invite police experts from Europe or America to conduct training or the other for police personnel in Africa, without an understanding of the internal mechanism of the society.
“There is no way you can successfully operate as a policeman if you do not understand the locality from where you are operating. There is need to understand the sentiments of the people that you are to police.
“That is why we believe that an African university that can help to coach and educate our people in practical and proper policing would be an advantage.”
The university’s drive
Agbambu’s team was received at the university by Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC) Teaching, Learning and Technology Prof. Stanley Mukhola; Acting Executive Dean, Faculty of Humanities, Prof. Mashupye Maserumule; Head of Department (HOD), Safety and Security Management, Prof. Jacob Mofokeng;
President, Higher Education Partners Africa (HEPSA), Nick Kendall; Associate Professor, Department of Safety, Prof. Adewale Olusola (a Nigerian), among others.
The DVC said the university was happy to collaborate with SWAI in a project that will benefit Africa and her people.
“The citizens of Africa want to be safe all the time. We are working very hard as a faculty and as a university to establish research which is very critical. This is one department that strives in the research agenda.
“Ours is to do the best we can. The purpose of this is also to be in partnership with our colleagues who are here today because we can’t do this alone. We need other partners to drive the agenda of research and community engagement.
“This is not just an MoU for the sake of it; it must be an MoU that is alive so that by the end of the year we will be able to give tangible outputs. This will enable us to make serious effect. We need to make sure that whatever we commit to, we adhere,” he said.
Similarly, Dean of Faculty of Humanities Prof. Maserumule said the partnership was in line with Agenda 63 of the African Union, adding that the school made moves to work with SWAI because there was coherence in their actions.
“If you look at what we are doing in the department, you look at what SWAI is doing; there is a high degree of coherence. We have decided to partner them because what we are doing will subsequently help the continent.
“Also, I was looking at some very important questions that AU Agenda 63 is asking, particularly as it relates to safety and security.
The important point that they are making is that there is no way that we can talk about the development of Africa if we do not address issues that relate to safety and security.
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“Specific questions that are asked and requesting us to answer relates to key safety and security challenges facing Africa and they request us to conduct research on them.
“When I look at all these things they are talking about, I can clearly see the continent surmounting its challenges if, indeed, African leaders are communicating with and sharing ideas on safety and security in Africa.
“Perhaps, an important task that we need to start to look into as part of the MoU is how we can get into the African Union research agenda and make sure that we contribute extensively.”
Prof. Mofokeng, who’s the HOD said: “It is, indeed, time that we had to come together as Africa to be able to look at issues affecting Africa.
It is most imperative that we have that unified body that will be able to look at issues and come up with measures and strategies to make Africa a safer continent.”
Noting that trainees would be issued generic qualifications, Prof. Mofokeng said the expertise of the university’s online programme manager, HEPSA, would be required to take the courses to a wider audience.
Speaking for HEPSA, Kendall said: “We feel passionate about the online modalities. Our expertise is bringing the skills and technology to a wider market.
“For the partnership with TUT, we utilise their academic content and use our expertise to come up with an online modality. We are part of a world-leading programme manager, Academic Partnerships, an American-based company which has run successfully for the past 20 years. So, we leverage their expertise.”
Funding
Knowing how poorly funded the Nigeria Police Force and the Correctional Services are, the issue of funding for the trainings was a major poser.
While Ghana and The Gambia have procedures that allow their operatives seeking educational advancement to seek approval and if granted, proceed for such, those in Nigeria are only allowed if they are going to foot the bills themselves.
However, Agbambu said discussions were already on with the affected agencies, assuring that the Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Adamu has promised to assist policemen who want to advance professional education.
“We are currently in discussions with three police agencies in Nigeria, Ghana and The Gambia. In Ghana, the system is slightly different from what we have in Nigeria.
“Any police officer who wants to advance him/herself in Nigeria have to personally fund it. But in Ghana, a policeman who wants to advance himself can seek for advice on funding from the system. Once approved, they are provided. The same is applicable in The Gambia.
“Incidentally, the largest number of policemen is in Nigeria. For instance, Lagos Police Command has over 28,000 personnel. Whereas, Ghana’s police strength is not up to 25,000. Perhaps, that is why it is easy for other countries to fund the training for their police.
“However, Nigeria police officers who want to personally develop themselves are fortunate to have the current Inspector-General of Police, Adamu who has promised some assistance.
Being someone who has undergone several of these courses through self-sponsorship, he understands the challenges and has promised to support officers willing to undertake such moves.
“It is in the area of the courses and seminars that the police as a body would be sponsoring them. But for those who want to go for three courses or a quarterly certification training would have to cater for themselves.”
On how online students are expected to cope given the challenge of electricity and other related issues, Agbambu said that was being worked on, adding that they have mapped out four weeks to proffer solutions to some of these problems in order to make things easier for trainees.
“We have identified this as a challenge, and in two weeks’ time, we would be returning to South Africa to see how we can get support for every student who indicates interest to study, so as to make the technology easier for them.
“When we talk about these technologies, we also consider the energy to power the tools.
Environment is also another issue and many more. Hence, we have set a goal of four-week period, to solve all these hurdles to make it much easier for the people.
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