Alumni in Focus

Madam Comfort

Intelligence Analyst

In our Alumni in Focus segment this month, and in keeping with our theme of celebrating women in Law Enforcement, we would like to feature one of our female alumna from Nigeria, who we will call Madam Comfort.  She is an analyst with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. She attended two courses delivered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and is very active in class discussions and projects. Join me now as we journey into the life of an Intelligence Analyst.

Could you please give a brief introduction of yourself? 

Comfort at the RTC

My name is Comfort and I am from Nigeria. I work with Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). I have worked with the NDLEA for the past eleven years. I started out with the IT department and then became an Intelligence Analyst two years ago. My job mainly consists of data and intelligence analysis, financial analysis and some IT work.

Is this your first training at the RTC?

Yes, this is my first training here at the West Africa Regional Training Center (RTC), but I have had previous training in Basic and Advanced Criminal Intelligence Analysis. At the RTC, I have been trained on Advanced Drug Investigations, Financial Investigations and Clandestine Laboratory Investigations. I also belong to the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts.

What are your major takeaways from the RTC training?

Cross section of participants from the Financial Investigations class

It was a great learning opportunity for me. The instructors are very professional and knew how to capture the class’ attention. They are knowledgeable, with a wealth of experience up their sleeves. The RTC does tremendous work to make us comfortable- the   staff is friendly, they attend to us all the time and frankly they’re awesome. I met people from all over Africa and had the chance to interact with them and share ideas (Editor note: We have a group platform on social media where RTC alumni can remain in contact).

As a woman in law enforcement, what are some of the challenges you face and how do you deal with them?

Sometimes, I don’t like to admit this but men and women are not given equal opportunities. If men can go on operations, so can we! We can do the same job. In my unit for example, there’s a ratio of three women to twenty five men…. That’s a pretty tough playing field but it only makes us work even harder.

I would like to encourage more women to join the Law Enforcement community. There are so many opportunities, even to lead. And you learn to balance family and work life better. A career in Law Enforcement makes you bold, self-confident and eventually, you earn the respect and admiration of male counterparts. You’re able to stand up to any challenge at any time- the world is at your feet!

Lastly, what additional training would you like to see at the RTC?

Please I would love more training on Intelligence gathering for Analysts. I feel people tend to be afraid of the analyst position because there is a lot of thinking involved. With more training, we could see better analysts in Africa. In fact, I have been selected to attend a global training in the United States for Intelligence Analysts, later on this year, and I’m really looking forward to it!

I would like to thank the U.S. Government and my agency back home for the RTC training experience. I feel like a better version of myself after these few weeks- I know I’m going to excel in my career as an analyst and I look forward to more training!

At the RTC, we get to meet and interact with great minds and personalities like Comfort! If you would like to be featured in our monthly newsletter, please feel free to write back to us at info@westafricartc.org