By Palma Ileye
Commandant General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi has decried the growing rate of gender-based abuses and violence at schools even in the Nursery, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary institutions and has restated the efforts of the Corps to checkmate this.
Audi according to a press release issued by the Corps Spokesperson CSC Babawale Afolabi stated this when he and his entourage paid a working and relationship-building visit to the Director General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, NILDS, Professor Abubakar Sulaiman.
“The gender-based abuses are affecting the pupils both psychologically and physically. To put an end to this NSCDC has developed some platforms and established SGBV Clubs nationwide. The SGBV Clubs are to sensitize teachers, pupils, and even the host communities on the danger of gender-based violence.
“But, NSCDC as a paramilitary agency, believe too much in the training and retraining of our officers and men most especially specialized and tailor-made training, a kind which can only be obtained at your institute.
“We want to leverage on the dexterity of the institute in the area of legislation and also to key -in, into the institute training method and we hope to achieve a symbiotic working Professorp in the long run,” the Commandant General stated.
In his remarks, the DG of the Institute, Professor Abubakar Sulaiman praised the intellectual dexterity of the Commandant General stating that the NSCDC is lucky to have such an intellectually gifted scholar at the helm of the affairs. According to the DG, the National Institute Of Legislative and Democratic Studies is a capacity-building agency of the National Assembly and provides technical services to the legislature and other democratic institutions in the country.
“Our Institute is a knowledge and capacity building hub. It is an academic wing of the National Assembly. By the amended Act of 2018, we are now extending our services to every stakeholder in the country,” the DG, NILDS said.
According to him, the Institute was ready to partner with NSCDC in all ramifications.
He pointed out that the Institute has a unit called “Centre For Security Analysis ” which always liaises with security agencies in the country to identify threat and threat situations and provide information to the parliament.
“Also we have a gender based Unit here which we call the “Gender Inclusion Unit”, GIU and I think the Unit with liaise with the NSCDC sexual and Gender Based Unit and see how we can work out things.
“By and large, we are going to synergies and set up a technical working committee on the needs, partnership and collaboration between NSCDC and NILDS and come up with working modalities,” he concluded.
The Commandant General was accompanied by the Head of the NSCDC’s Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Unit, ACC Kemi Alao Ajet.
The main thrust of the visit was to familiarize ourselves with the institute and establish and long-lasting working relationship between the two Federal Government Agencies, most especially in the area of training and retraining cum capacity building, with specific reference to the NSCDC efforts to rid our schools and society at large of the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.
