What happened?
HumAngle engaged ten (10) Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Community-based Organisations (CBOs) in Adamawa state, Northeast Nigeria, to discuss the importance of promoting transparency and accountability in humanitarian-related and security funding in the region, especially as it relates to efforts surrounding resolving the farmer-herder crisis.
Participants shared experiences and problems faced in the course of executing outreach programmes, and how lack of accountability worsens insecurity and humanitarian problems. They also shared the limitation of humanitarian intervention in Adamawa state, especially in comparison to other conflict-affected areas.
They discussed the role of citizen participation in reducing corruption and enhancing accountability, especially during emergencies, and how the lack of it continues to contribute to worsening the insecurity, as well as the complicity of state actors in human rights violations and extrajudicial actions.
Why does it matter?
Even though the humanitarian presence in Adamawa state is significant, it does not fully take the dynamics of the insecurity plaguing the state into consideration. Asides from the insurgency from terror groups, there are other equally corrosive drivers of insecurity in the state. A lack of attention to it means that its impact will go largely unacknowledged and therefore unaddressed.
The resultant impoverishment and hunger translates to vulnerability of residents to crime such as kidnapping by criminal gangs which has been on the rise in the state in recent times.
In the past year, it was reported that 657,000 people across the state were suffering a food crisis, and these numbers are expected to double by the lean season as violent attacks worsen farming outputs.
This is particularly because apart from Islamist insurgents, farmers and breeders are other actors in the most frequent security crisis in Adamawa state, where farmer-herder clashes continue to be the leading cause of deaths, displacements, and starvation.
What can be done?
It is recommended that the funding going into the welfare of workers in the security sector be interrogated and documented transparently. This means that the non-disclosure in purchasing vehicles for the Nigerian army, for example, should not be shrouded in secrecy, as it does not give room for accountability for the funds.
It is recommended that accurate budgeting be taken seriously to have data that details the amount of funds needed to maintain the police. There needs to be a mechanism for the accounting of the disbursement of the vehicles to security officers as well. It is also recommended that security funding be done in a way that recognises the different dynamics of the insecurity in the state.
What can we do as a collective?
We expect to have a partnership agreement that we will all collectively develop in the coming weeks, have it signed in the coming month, and have a visual meeting to iron out an action plan and implementation pathway.
Send a brief description or profile of your organisation, thematic area of focus, previous work done, and what your organisation can do in relation to the project and the issues discussed at our meeting in Yola.
We also urge you to visit our website, www.humanglemedia.com, to understand the work that we do as well. We would like to get this feedback within two weeks. All feedback/enquiries should be sent to partnership@humanglemedia.com.
