FOSER, ‘Know Your Rights’ Trains 500 Bauchi Youths, PWDs On Human Rights

Five hundred (500) Youths’ representatives from the various segments of Bauchi State society Tuesday ended their six-day training on Youth Groups Appreciation of Civil Rights under the auspices of the ‘Know Your Rights Project’ organized by a Non-Governmental Organization, Foundation for Societal Empowerment & Rejuvenation (FOSER) in partnership with Initiative for the Liberalization of Physically Challenged People in Nigeria (ILPCPN) and Kings Leodews Initiative (KLI).

The six-day training which kicked-off last Tuesday, 8th March 2022 at the Professor Iya Abubakar Community Resource Centre, Bauchi. The Project has as its aim of reducing conflict between citizens and security agents, especially the police by 20%.

‘Know Your Rights’ Project Manager, Yusuf Sani Mahmud told the press in Bauchi shortly after the training closure that unlike #EndSARS, the Project is not to train the police or advocate them directly, but rather it chooses to sensitize and train youths on understanding their rights to avoid conflict.

He said, “We are not going to train the police or advocate them directly, no, we chose to sensitize and train the youths in particular, so the 500 participants are a representative figure of the citizenship, and the greater population is made up of youths”.

Mahmud explained that the training is to show to the youths to understand that once one’s right is constitutionally recognized, they would know how to use their rights to avoid conflicts, and be able to step down their training to other citizens in the society.

According to him, such citizens on who the training would be administered are expected to step-down to other members of society, who shall emulate the project participants on learning how to avoid conflicting situations with any security agent at any given time.

“So, should there be conflict at any given time, they will know how to work around it and should they need to seek redress, they will know the steps to take, and if it is something they can rectify between themselves and security agents, they have been trained to do so”.

Mr. Yusuf Mahmud disclosed that the 500 participants are not only one set of society, but comprised of Persons With Disability (PWDs), market representatives, tertiary students and even the recalcitrant who are either school drop-outs or unable to continue with education.