President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the take off of the National Centre for the Coordination of Early Warning and Response Mechanism.

The government agency was established with the signing of Executive Order 12 by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The order signed on June 10, 2022 establishes the National Early Warning Centre.

It is backed by Article 58 of the Treaty of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Article 16 of the Protocol on the Mechanism related to Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security.

Under the ECOWAS instruments, including the 1993 Revised ECOWAS Treaty, each member state is to establish a national early warning centre to address issues related to threats to human security.

The Nigerian Centre, domiciled in the Office of the Vice President, will provide research, analysis and advisory on trends in the human security sector cutting across the environment, public health and governance.

The Centre will also focus on human rights, food security, crime and support government’s responses to emerging situations in these domains.

The President has approved the appointment of Chris Ngwodo as the Director General of the National Centre.

Ngwodo was until now Senior Special Assistant to the President on Policy Research (VP’s office).

He had served as Technical Assistant to the President on Justice, Conflict and Security (VP’s office).

The lawyer has worked on conflict, human security, policy and development issues for over a decade.

Ngwodo was a member of the Presidential Committee on the North-East Initiative.