(GIN) – The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Government of Japan will take on crime prevention and criminal justice reform in Nigeria in two new projects announced this week in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

The projects aim to increase national-level capacity in a region which has been besieged by the insurgent group Boko Haram while lacking strong institutions to address terror and crime.

Announcing a Memorandum of Understanding between the two entities, Aldo Lale-Demoz of UNODC said: “It is our pledge that the Japanese Government and UNODC will continue to cooperate in the fight against these crimes in a balanced, comprehensive and sustainable manner not only in Nigeria, but also globally.”

Specifically, the projects target “capacity building for effective prosecution of terrorism offences’’ and “the fight against trafficking in persons in Nigeria’’.

“The projects are expected to contribute to increased capacity to guide and undertake effective investigation and prosecution of trafficking in persons and terrorism-related cases in conformity with the rule of law and human rights,’’ said Ryuichi Shoji, Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria.

Shoji said the project would involve training of officials from the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Nigeria Immigration Service, the Nigeria Police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

Violence has picked up in the West African nation as elections move forward for president on Feb. 14 and for governors on Feb. 28. Nigeria has given mixed signals as to whether the polls would be postponed in light of the thousands of citizens who are in refugee camps and lack voting cards, mostly in the northern region.

Nigerians will be asked to choose between the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan, who has proved unable to make headway against the well-armed militants, and the opposition leader, Muhammadu Buhari, a former military strongman.

The insurgency is far from Jonathan’s southern political heartland and afflicts people more likely to vote for the opposition. He has shown little enthusiasm for tackling it, and even less success.

Quick to offer condolences to France after the attack on Charlie Hedbo, Jonathan waited almost two weeks before speaking up about a Boko Haram attack that killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of his compatriots.

A little known fact about the Japan-Nigeria link is that Japan hosts a small African community with a sizeable number of Nigerians, many of whom arrived along with other West Africans as migrant labor in the 1980s. Most found work as vendors and prospered in the days after their arrival.

But the honeymoon did not last. Customs agents began seizing apparel shipments that belonged to Nigerian clothing store owners. Some contained brand name counterfeits. A cultural backlash that resulted put most hip hop stores out of business.

Most Nigerians in Japan – about 3,500 – are ethnically Igbo people who identify themselves as uniquely industrious and capable of achieving quick prosperity under challenging circumstances. They measure that prosperity financially and don’t hesitate to advertise it.

“There are a few who have children here, who feel these children are truly their own, and feel that this is their true home,” said J.J., a father of three in an interview with Japan Today. But this vision of stability and prosperity had the misfortune of running up again a culturally conservative and closed society.

A warning issued by the U.S. Embassy in 2009 against visits to the Nigerian-business district of Roppongi further eroded the shred of security still enjoyed by some Nigerians.

Today, the Nigerian Union in Japan is the central civic organisation for immigrants from Africa’s most populous nation. Over two decades old, its current incarnation under new leadership is less than a year old.

The Union president, Okeke Christian Kevin, says he is committed to overcoming the negative stereotypes that have stuck to the Nigerian community.

The new capacity building initiatives, meanwhile, between Japan and the UNODOC will run for one year and are in the amount of 175 million naira or 909,000 U.S. dollars.