CLEEN Foundation Tuesday officially presented a research report on the post ENDSARS protests to the Minister of Police Affairs, Dr. Mohammed Maigari Dingyadi in Abuja.
AFRIPOST reports that the Foundation unveiled the post ENDSARS research report on Tuesday, December 6, 2022 during a training programme with the theme: “Training Of Police Oversight Agencies On Strengthen Oversight Mechanisms On Accountability And Human Rights/Launch Of The Post Endsars Research Report.”
The Executive Director of the CLEEN Foundation, Mr Gad Peter during the formal presentation of the research report at the Headquarters of the Ministry of Police Affairs highlighted the key findings and recommendations as below:
Key findings
- A sample size of 12,000 respondents where engaged for the quantitative data
- Majority (41%%) of the respondents believed the protests were as a result of police brutality while others (17%) believed that the protests resulted from accumulated anger against the government.
- Also, (52%) of the respondents believed the government did not handle the protests in a professional manner.
- However the research noted that the media played a huge role in the propagation of the protests and more than half of the participants in the study were of the opinion that the media would be very useful in promoting the effectiveness of the reforms.
- On the impact of the reforms, most (74%) of the participants reported that the quality of policing had not significantly improved after the protests as there were still reports of human rights violations by the police.
- More than half of the participants especially the youths were of the opinion that the protests elicited some form of consciousness among the youths, and this could be harnessed to enhance more participation in governance, especially in the demand for accountability.
- On the demands of the ENDSARS protesters. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of respondents rated the government’s handling of demands by ENDSARS protesters as inefficient.
- Majority of the respondents (65%) in the survey faulted the government’s handling of the protests, hence they described the response of government to the demands by ENDSARS protesters as inefficient.
- Most importantly, the research showed that Perceptions on the EndSARS Protest varies from North to East as a result of policing strategies and techniques in the regions.
Recommendations
- The need for the NPF to build the capacity of its staff in the handling of protests cannot be overemphasized.
- Police in Nigeria have a perennial problem of crowd control and that was what played out in the management of the protests. The need for the police to develop more modern and pragmatic protests management.
- More awareness should be created around various interventions made by the government and the NPF, after the ENDSARS protests using both traditional and contemporary social media platforms, especially the youth friendly ones such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, among others.
- Recruitment into the NPF must be re-evaluated and emphasis should be placed on merits than any other primordial sentiments, in line with global best practices and standards.
- The need for the government to create public-oriented programmes aimed at rekindling public trust in the Nigeria Police Force should be considered.
- The Police must improve relations and engagements with the public by harnessing social media and creative contents.
- More funding should be released to the NPF to enhance better service delivery and overhaul of obsolete infrastructure.
- CLEEN ED Gad Peter addressing the Honourable Minister of Police Affairs Dr. Mohammed Maigari Dingyadi
Responding, the Honourable Minister, Dr Dingyadi thanked the CLEEN Foundation team led by its Executive Director, Peter and acknowledged the Foundation’s tremendous efforts in peace building in the country.
He assured CLEEN that its recommendations are going to be looked at and promised to continue partnering with the Foundation to maintain peace and tranquility.
The Minister said, “The Ministry is going to remain media friendly. Police must be accountable to Nigerians through the effort of partnering with civil society organisations like CLEEN and the media.
“CLEEN and Police are almost one family and they will continue to work together,” he said.
