Security experts at a two-day conference in Abuja have developed two policy tools aimed at improving security communication and reducing ethnic profiling in Nigeria and West Africa. The tools include an Anti-ethnic Stereotyping and Profiling Toolkit and a National Policy Brief, designed to guide security agencies, the media and policymakers in using non-stigmatising and operationally effective language. The outcome was announced in a joint statement issued on Friday by Brig.-Gen. Saleh Bala (Rtd), founder of the Whiteink Institute for Strategy Education and Research (WISER), and Dr Kabir Adamu, Managing Director of Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited (BSIL). The conference, organised by WISER and BSIL, gathered security experts, civil society actors, media practitioners and diplomatic representatives to examine how harmful language undermines public trust and national cohesion. Adamu described the toolkit and policy brief as critical steps toward a more inclusive, people-centred security framework. Bala urged the Federal and state governments, ECOWAS, civil society organisations and development partners to adopt the tools, particularly ahead of the 2027 elections. The final documents will be submitted to relevant institutions as practical guides for shaping security discourse and community engagement.
The release of these tools reveals how deeply ethnic profiling has become embedded in Nigeria's security discourse, if such a deliberate corrective is now deemed necessary. That Brig.-Gen. Saleh Bala and Dr Kabir Adamu had to lead this intervention shows the gap in official policy, not just in language but in trust between security institutions and citizens. While the toolkit may influence media and agency wording, its real test lies in whether those conducting stop-and-search operations or running media briefings actually change their habits. Without enforcement, even the best policy brief remains a document, not a directive.
