Nigeria partners Germany on Police reforms

The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, received a high-level delegation of the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, 23^rd November 2021. The visit which continued discussions aimed at creating, designing, and running a Police Reform programme for the Nigeria Police Force with support from the German Government through its Global Security Sector Reform Foundation (GS-F), is against the backdrop of the Presidential Reform Plan of President Muhammadu Buhari, through the Nigeria/German Binational Commission’s Agreement on Police Reforms.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Force Headquarters, Abuja, CP Frank Mba, in a statement on Tuesday explained that the collaboration is focused on enhancing the capacity of the Nigeria Police Force in thematic areas of training, intelligence gathering, forensic capabilities, information and communication technology, and human rights-based policing to catalyze a result-oriented reform in key sectors of the Nigeria Police structure and bring about a paradigm shift in alignment with global best standards.

The German delegation was led by Alexandre Callegaro, Deputy Director for West and Central Africa, German Federal Foreign Office. Other members of the delegation include Sascha Weh, Police Adviser at the German Federal Foreign Office; Matthias Seeger, a retired Inspector-General; and other retired officers of the German Federal Police attached to German Global Security Sector Reform Foundation (GS-F).

The meeting was also attended by the Inspector-General of Police, represented by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of the Department of Finance and Administration, DIG Sanusi Lemu, and other members of the Force Management Team, senior officers from various departments of the Force, AIG Cornelius Kayode Aderanti; Senior Special Assistant to the President on General Duties, Tunji Lardner Jr.; Senior Special Assistant to the President on Strategy and Planning, Dr. Charles Omole; National Security Adviser to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, amongst others.

Mba disclosed that the Inspector-General of Police expressed the willingness of the Police leadership to embrace reforms in all sectors of the Nigeria Police. He seized the opportunity to assure Nigerians that his administration is poised to cooperate with the German delegation and other development partners on creating enabling platform for general reforms of the Force to promote professionalism, human-rights-based and effective policing of the country.