From Danjuma Attah, Gombe
The Office for Strategic Preparedness and Resilience (OSPRE) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Operation Safe Corridor Nigeria (OPSC), to promote sustainable peace and national security through non-kinetic means.
OSPRE’s Director General, Mr Chris Ngwodo, and the Coordinator of OPSC, Brigadier General Yusuf Ali, recently signed the MoU at the OSPRE headquarters in Abuja.
In a press statement sent to our Correspondent in Gombe by the Programme Manager of OSPRE, Hafsah Matazu, the partnership aims to standardise and harmonize approaches in the management of demobilisation, disarmament, deradicalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration of irregular combatant as well as post-conflict recovery in conflict-affected communities.
The MoU is also aimed at advancing collaboration, especially in strengthening peacebuilding and security institutions through capacity building and evidence-based research.
The statement added that the MoU will ensure the promotion of victim-centred principles and practices including transitional justice, restorative justice and trauma recovery.
“A holistic approach is needed in which all critical stakeholders are partners with OPSC to achieve our common objectives. We have identified OSPRE as a key partner in this regard and a welcome development at Defence Headquarters (DHQ).” Brigadier General Yusuf Ali stated.
“We are optimistic that this signing today will open a new chapter of our engagement in combating insecurity and building lasting peace in Nigeria,” he added.
In his remarks, Mr Chris Ngwodo of OSPRE expressed his keenness on the new partnership saying, “We can see very clearly the areas of convergence between our two entities and our work.
“Over the years, we have learnt that we have to evolve the tools we use in fighting asymmetrical conflicts. We are not confronting conventional warfare; this isn’t the typical kind of warfare that our institutions have traditionally been configured to engage in.
“We have also recognised the need to develop non-kinetic tools to address these types of conflicts our country is facing. Operation Safe Corridor is at the very forefront of our country’s efforts to develop such tools. We are very keen to begin doing the work we can do together to advance the peace and security of our country,” he pointed out.
Operation Safe Corridor Nigeria (OPSC) is the Federal Government’s flagship multi-agency non-kinetic operations initiative established in 2016 and domiciled in the Defence Headquarters.
OSPRE, also known as the National Centre for the Coordination of Early Warning and Response Mechanisms, Nigeria, was established in 2022 under Article 58 of the Treaty of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and is domiciled in the Office of the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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