CLEEN Foundation launches civil-military relations Phase IV

The CLEEN Foundation has launched the Phase IV of the Civil Military Relations (CMR) in Abuja.

The project supported by National Endowment for Democracy (NED) seeks to strengthen civil military relations in Nigeria to improve accountability, security and human rights.

CLEEN Foundation commenced Civil Military Relations project in 2015, with the project contributing in helping the military in implementing some notable reforms, particularly in the areas of improving its interactions with the public.

Some of the reforms are the establishment of a Civil Military Relations Desk by the Federal Ministry of Defence, and the Army’s establishment of a Human Rights Desk that is devolved down to the divisional level, and its corresponding human rights call center.

To achieve the objective for the Phase IV project, CLEEN put in place Network on Security Sector Reform in Nigeria (NetSSRIN), a consortium of 12 Civil Society Organisation (CSOs), selected across the six geo-political zones.

The 12 members will work in collaboration with the Nigeria Army Human Rights desk to monitor and document human rights abuse committed by the Nigerian military and other security personnel. Besides NetSSRI, National Human Right Commission (NHRC) is a core implementing partner for the CMR phase IV.

The CLEEN partnership with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is in recognition of the commission’s role in consolidating and protecting human rights and public freedoms in Nigeria, which is one of the core objectives of the Civil-Military Relations Project.

“We understand that the dichotomy between the military and the civil populace has always existed, however, during the military rule; the civil-military divide grew to an alarming level. Therefore, to create a society where the military and the civilian will live together, there is the need to improve civil-military relations by reconnecting communities with the military, and emphasizing the importance of civil military relations, which is why the CMR phase IV project is most crucial,” The CLEEN Foundation Executive Director, Dr. Benson Olugbuo said.