US embassy cable - 02ABUJA3353

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ABUJA 003353 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
 
DEPT FOR INL AND AF 
 
 
DOJ FOR ICITAP -- Eric Beinhart 
 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: KCRM, PGOV, SNAR, NI 
SUBJECT:  NIGERIA/POLICE REFORM:  FIRST QUARTER REPORT 
 
1.(SBU) SUMMARY:  Progress in implementing the INL/ICITAP 
Police Reform project in Nigeria has been encouraging, 
particularly given the past challenges in starting the 
project.  A collaborative foundation among ICITAP advisors 
and GON partners has been built and the forecast for 
training and change management activities is good, provided 
that commitments made to date by GON counterparts are 
realized.  END SUMMARY 
 
 
Building Relationships 
---------------------- 
 
 
2.(SBU) The ICITAP Police Advisor/Project Manager arrived 
at Post in mid-August, along with two Jos-based ICITAP 
technical advisors (contractors) and immediately began 
building working relationships with senior Police managers 
at Police Headquarters in Abuja and the instructor training 
center in Jos.  ICITAP staff has found a key partner in 
Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Musa Abdulkadir, 
who overseas all of the Police Training schools and 
administration of the training curriculum. Abdulkadir 
agrees with the USG project's goals of change in Police 
training and has provided crucial, efficient support to the 
ICITAP team.  Support at the Central Planning and Training 
Unit (CPTU) in Jos -- charged with training of Police 
Trainers and updating the various Police curricula -- has 
been less even, though new instructors are eager to work 
with ICITAP in implementing the new Basic Recruit 
curriculum.  The Director of the CPTU has just been removed 
and the Deputy Inspector General for Training guarantees 
the ICITAP PA/PM that the new Director will be more 
motivated to his task of training reform. 
 
 
3.(SBU) Inspector General of Police (IG) Tafa Balogun 
supports the project in principle but has not been as 
active as he could be.  From numerous candid accounts by 
his staff, Balogun apparently remains suspicious of USG 
intentions and reluctant to quickly and fully embrace 
comprehensive reforms in Nigeria Police management. 
 
 
4.(SBU) The immediate work goals of reviewing and 
redesigning the basic recruit curriculum and instructor 
development curriculum have been achieved.   ICITAP 
technical advisors assigned to work the NP's CPTU staff in 
Jos have designed curricula for both basic recruits and the 
instructors who train those recruits.  Jos has proven a 
good base from where current and future training efforts 
can be centralized.   At the CPTU facility on the Jos 
Police College campus, ICITAP has an office with computers, 
training aides, and a photocopier -- all with generator 
support.  Operating costs are lower than elsewhere in the 
country and the College campus offers a ready learning 
center where officers can reside while receiving training 
or working with ICITAP on additional curricula reforms. 
 
 
Next Step:  Kaduna 
------------------ 
 
 
5.(SBU) The ICITAP Facility in Jos will serve to train 
basic recruit instructors there and conduct elections 
security training and the CDM training for the Jos unit 
(both discussed below).  Completion of the basic recruit 
curriculum, however, allows the project to move to the next 
planned phase of direct training of a new batch of basic 
recruits at the Kaduna Police College, to be carried out by 
two ICITAP trainers overseeing newly trained NP instructors 
at that College.  Currently, a batch of 500 new recruits 
enters the College each month for a training course of six 
months.  Few recruits fail their basic training, in order 
to satisfy the Federal Government's order for a nationwide 
recruitment drive of 40,000 new recruits each year. 
Complementing this effort will be a Field Officer training 
activity to prepare the front-line supervisors of the 
recruits who will graduate and be posted to Kaduna.  A six- 
to eight-month presence in Kaduna by two long-term advisors 
is envisioned. 
 
 
6.(SBU) Kaduna Police officials, including the Commandant 
of the Police College and the Commissioner of Police for 
the State, have voiced their support for the project's 
goals in Kaduna.  Kaduna State Governor Makarfi has 
supported this effort since he was first briefed two years 
ago; he reaffirmed this commitment in a meeting with the 
Ambassador, RNLEO and ICITAP Project Manager on December 
11. 
 
 
Civil Disorder Training . . in time for elections? 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
 
7.(SBU) Second year funding for the project includes 
activities for elections security ($250,000) and Civil 
Disorder Management (CDM) training.   Both have been moved 
to the front of the queue for implementation before other 
activities funded in the project's first fiscal year in 
order to have impact, albeit very limited, on security 
during the local and national elections scheduled for March 
and April 2003.   Elections security training will take 
place in early January 2003 for 80 NPF trainers -- two from 
each of the countries 36 states and the Federal Capital 
Territory and four from the CPTU.  This will be two weeks 
of training on the precepts of controlling polling stations 
to prevent disorder.  This is distinct from the more 
operational training of the Civil Disorder Management 
Units. 
 
 
8.(SBU) Civil Disorder Management training to build 
demonstration units in key urban areas with records of 
civil unrest had been planned as part of the project 
independent of the upcoming elections.  However, we hope to 
commence training four units -- agreed to by the NP 
managers -- in late January, contingent upon arrival in- 
country of equipment to be provided to these units.  ICITAP 
Trainers will visit Jos, Kaduna and Kano to offer four 
weeks of intensive training of newly created CDM units of 
50 policemen/women each.  A double-size unit of 100 will be 
trained in Lagos for the CDM unit there.  The ICITAP 
curriculum developed for this training is in line with ICRC 
and UNHCR standards and will emphasize minimal use of force 
-- without the lethal tools that most Police currently use 
on crowd control situations.   If the schedule is 
maintained, the four units will be ready for deployment in 
late March -- in time for the national elections and 
perhaps in time for the local elections. 
 
 
9.(SBU) Key to the success of these units is that they will 
operate largely independent of conventional police units 
around them and will use amended Police Force Orders. 
(Note: Current Force Orders authorize excessive use of 
force to break up riots and crowds. End Note)  Once trained 
on responsible techniques for handling unrest with 
restraint and accountability, these units should not be 
faced with contradicting orders from commanding officers. 
 
 
Change Management -- the Toughest Challenge 
------------------------------------------- 
 
 
10.(SBU)  The ICITAP Advisor has been able to build an 
increasingly firm base of Police support for training 
efforts and revisions to basic recruit training and 
operations (e.g. Civil Disorder Management).  However, 
acceptance of fundamental changes in the management and 
oversight of the Police is hard to find.  The IGP seems 
resistant to the planned activity of creating a Police 
Modernization Committee composed of key stakeholders in 
Police reform (the Police, NGOs, the media, community 
groups, the National Assembly and the Police Service 
Commission) to offer guidance and oversight to the process 
of reform. 
 
 
11.(SBU) We see the fledgling Police Service Commission, 
inaugurated in late 2001 and mandated by the Constitution, 
as key to prodding the Nigeria Police toward reform. 
Assistance to help build the PSC's capacity will be 
provided with FY02 ESF.   Key to the success of the change 
management efforts of our project will be the forging of a 
productive relationship between the Police hierarchy and 
the PSC and among the two and other stakeholders in the 
Police Reform process.  It is too early to gauge the 
prospects for this success. 
 
 
Sustainability -- the Key Issue 
------------------------------- 
 
 
12.(SBU) Cooperation and commitment from the Police have 
been good to this point.  The INL/ICITAP project will soon 
test the depth of that commitment as it advances to the 
next stage of demanding change in the deployment and 
behavior of personnel trained under the new curriculum 
developed and implemented jointly by ICITAP and NPF 
instructors.  An example of this test will be the desire 
that most or all of the 500 new recruits to be trained (a 
six month period) at the Kaduna College be deployed within 
Kaduna City -- a break from traditional practice of 
deploying new recruits throughout the country -- and 
allowed to operate along the newly designed guidelines 
developed through the Field Officer training activity.  If 
these requirements are met, this Kaduna deployment has a 
high chance of success and could in Phase Two of the 
project be replicated in the other three Police Colleges of 
the country. 
 
 
13.(SBU) While the lack of funding and equipment are 
serious deficiencies, some of the other problems 
undermining the performance of the Nigeria Police are based 
in the outdated curricula and regulations of the Force and 
in the attitudes of senior managers.  Too many senior 
Police officers and outside policy-makers believe the 
solution lies within increased recruitment of police 
personnel and the provision of additional equipment. 
Acknowledging the priority of improving the quality of new 
recruits and their training and reform of the procedures 
governing those new recruits' behavior (including the 
acceptance of outside accountability) will be a long-term 
process but a process essential for these efforts to take 
and hold. 
ANDREWS