By Okey Alozie
When Dr. Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji was invited to participate in a United Nations Confab in Abuja last week, this reporter wrote that he would bring the Imo story to centre stage. The former Commissioner for Homeland Security and Vigilante Affairs, lived up to the billing, according to reports from the conference.
The conference was conceived to discuss “The Africa We Want and the United Nations We Need,” and it was hosted by the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development (SCDDD), founded and chaired by His Excellency Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, CFR. Held from March 4th to 6th, 2024, the conference attracted government representatives, prominent civil society groups and multilateral agencies from Africa and other parts of world, including the UN, the African Union (AU), and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Held at the Transcorp Hilton Abuja, the historic gathering was declared open by President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, who was represented by the Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria, Senator George Akume.
The Imo State experience in pursuit of peace and security was presented as a case study by Dr. Ugorji. Using Governor Uzodimma’s successes in peace making as an illustration, Ugorji made enlightening contributions to the discussions within the “Peace, Security and Defense” segment of the conference.
During his presentation, Ugorji posited that there needs to be a balanced mix of “hard power and soft power” in mitigating security challenges on the continent, in the nations, and at the subnational levels.
“Around 2020, Governor Hope Uzodimma faced a politically motivated, designed and vigorous multi-prong attack on the security and safety of life and property in the state. Using a combination of non-state actors and false flag operations, the governor’s formidable political adversaries, had the goal to make the state ‘ungovernable,’ with an objective to force the declaration of a state-of- emergency in the state by the federal government.” Ugorji said. “The unholy push was to remove the governor under the guise of state-of-emergency,” he added.
The former Commissioner shared that the state government under Uzodimma’s leadership enabled the security agencies to mitigate the violent aspects of the security challenges. When the environment was made sufficiently calm, the state then stepped up efforts in areas of dialogues, town hall meetings, skills acquisition for the youth and human capital development in general, as well as job employment opportunities through the Skillup Imo program.
“We recognized that criminal elements and separatist activists recruited from the pool of our young people, especially our young men. So we set out to also recruit and train Youth Peace Advocates in every community, first to provide an alternative narrative to the separatist propaganda, second to empower young people to take proactive ownership of their own security and safety in their communities, and third, to deny the criminal elements easy access to the recruitment of our youngsters.”
Ugorji stated that Imo was targeted to become like Haiti or Mogadishu, but that Gov. Uzodimma stood strong and stood tall with security agencies to prevent that from happening.
Gender inclusivity was another theme at the conference. Ugorji shared that Imo state got women, as a constituency, involved in security matters by linking up with the highly regarded August Women’s Meeting phenomenon. Hope’s Angels, a sister initiative to the Youth Peace Advocates, was also inaugurated, with emphasis on having women as active contributors at the table where security issues are discussed and security formations planned.
Ugorji also discussed Imo State’s approach to faith-based security challenges by the establishment of an Interfaith Security Advisory and Advocacy Council (ISAAC). Special outreach to traditional rulers, who are the chairperson of security councils in their various autonomous communities, was another important aspect of the Imo State case study, as discussed by the pioneer Commissioner.
“Peace is not just the absence of war,” Ugorji opined. “Peace must include the fair administration of justice, the equitable distribution of our common patrimony, and the general social, economic and cultural well-being of our peoples on the continent,” he said. He stated that respect for human rights and civil liberties was a core value of Imo State’s Ministry of Homeland Security and Vigilante Affairs.
The former Commissioner, Ugorji, called for security operatives, in the military and paramilitary organizations, to be well trained, well equiped and well paid. “We must do more to honour those who risk their lives and sometimes pay the ultimate price for all of us,” he opined.
But he also called for governments in Africa to put more money and other resources in peace making and peace building. “To the extent that we desire peace, then just as much funds should be devoted to peace efforts by government agencies and Civil Society Organizations. We as Africans can make peace among ourselves. The more we can achieve in civilian peace efforts, the less we would need the military and paramilitary organizations,” he said.
