By Williams ABAH
Global Rights has called on the government to provide an enabling environment for civil society to carry out their legitimate roles in the country.
They made the call at an event in Abuja on the launch of “Shrinking Civil Space” with the theme, “we no go gree.”
The global rights body said since the return of democracy in 1999 and particularly following the 2019 general elections, they are hopefully of renewed effort in addressing the problems preventing civil activists from contributing to democratic governance and the enabling space for CSO to thrive.
According to them, state actors have over time silencing the voice of the activists through the security arms of government.
They noted that government have not been doing well in the area of insecurity, corruption and poverty, alleging government’s flagrant and frequent disrespect of the rule of law.
The executive director, Global Rights, Mrs Abiodun Baiyewu, said the administration of APC which received the mandate of Nigerians for another four-year term would have reciprocate the people’s goodwill and trust; and commit itself to expand the civic space and facilitate citizen’s engagement in an expanding democratic space.
In her words, “civil society organisations have observed with great concern and indeed, alarm, massive violation of the rights of citizens, including the right to protest, concerted attacks of media organisations, press freedom and civil society organisations. “We are calling on government to create a space for us and give us the freedom to express ourselves in all national issues”.
She stressed the need for freedom of expression, noting that the “mass media has become a regular focus of illegal attacks by the security agencies. Unlawful arrests and detention of journalists have become a growing phenomenon, and our great tradition of a free press and freedom of expression is under severe stress.”
She demanded the immediate release of all activists who are in detention for exercising their fundamental rights.
“We call on security agencies and government officials to ensure total compliance to the rule of law as provided for in our legal system. We also call on government to respect and allow the flourishing of civil space for meaningful contribution to democratic governance and government to be more accountable and responsive to the citizenry they were elected to serve for good governance.”
