Lord Collins of Highbury
Main Page: Lord Collins of Highbury (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Collins of Highbury's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(2 years ago)
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Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)
The noble Baroness is absolutely right: it is a grim picture, with atrocities being committed far too regularly. Of course, we continue to encourage the Nigerian Government to take urgent action to protect people at risk, bring perpetrators to justice and implement long-term solutions that address the causes of violence. Most recently, the British high commissioner for Nigeria raised our concerns about violence with all the main presidential candidates ahead of the 2023 elections. Our high commissioner works very closely with state governors, local community faith leaders, NGOs and so on to address these issues, including through our work with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum. In January, the Minister for Africa raised our concerns with Nigeria’s Vice-President during his visit here. She also raised the various security challenges that Nigeria is facing with Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, General Monguno, at our security and defence partnership meeting in February. The former Prime Minister also raised the issue during his meeting with President Buhari at CHOGM in June.
Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)
My Lords, the Minister has mentioned the security and defence partnership twice. Bearing in mind that this has resulted in police advisers being deployed to Nigeria from the UK, as well as wider support for community policing, has the FCDO assessed how that is working? Has it made any commitment to it continuing?
Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)
My Lords, we refreshed our security and defence partnership with Nigeria in February this year. We committed to work together to respond to shared threats such as serious and organised crime and terrorism, and to support Nigeria to tackle its domestic security challenges. Our support is very wide-ranging, a reflection of improvements we brought to the partnership. It includes training, mentoring and advice on tackling serious and organised crime, countering terrorism, reforming and strengthening civil policing, improving capacity to prevent and respond to kidnappings, which are an increasing occurrence, and complying with international human rights law.