NAN-H-38
Bill
By Angela Atabo
Abuja, Aug. 4, 2017 (NAN) Partners for Electoral Reform (PEF), a Civil Society Organisation (CSO), has condemned a Bill before the House of Representatives seeking the establishment of a commission to regulate CSOs in the country.
The bill sponsored by Deputy Leader of the House, Umar Jibril (PDP-Kogi), which has passed second reading, wants the establishment of a Non-Governmental Regulatory Commission to check the actitivities of the organisations.
Condemning the bill, the Chairman of PEF, Mr Ezenwa Nwagwu, described it as “affront on citizens rights’’ because it infringed on the right of the people to hold government accountable.
Nwagwu said that the bill was a waste of time and would not be allowed “because it will be challenged, if not in court, then in the streets’’.
The bill is for an “Act to provide for the establishment of Regulatory Commission for the Supervision, Coordination and Monitoring of NGOs, CSOs and Communities-Based Organisations in Nigeria.’’
If established, the commission will be responsible only to the President and the Senate.
It will monitor and supervise the groups to ensure that they accomplish their missions according to law and in line with the programmes of government.
The commission will be empowered to take any punitive action against a civil society and do all such things incidental to its functions under the Act and may turn down registration of CSOs.
Nwagwu said “The bill sponsored by Jibril is an affront on the rights of citizens to hold government accountable as it seeks to put unnecessary limitation CSOs’ operation.
“It will also put bottlenecks on the ability of citizens, especially CSOs and NGOs to play their underbelly role of providing support even for government itself.
“The bill is governed by the thinking that the relationship between CSOs and government should be adversarial.
“If Jibrin understood that CSOs complimented government through critical analysis of government policies and input, then he may understand that he is on a wide goose chase.’’
Nwagwu clarified that his position should not be taken that CSOs were “seeking a free ride of not wanting to be regulated’’.
According to him, in fact, CSOs are the most regulated institutions in Nigeria. It is regulated by the Cooperate Affairs Commission (CAC) that registers it and the ministries that it works with.
He said that the ministries often imposed conditions other than those specified by the CAC and that it was also being regulated by even donors, who gave them specified conditions to receive funds.
The chairman said the accountability stretch of CSOs was unimaginable, adding that many had been blacklisted by donors, because of underhand dealing.
He said that the National Assembly had the responsibility to make laws for good governance of the country, and therefore, had no business making laws that would limit rights and restrict citizens.
Nwagwu said that the democracy that Nigeria practised was indeed, hard-won by CSOs and the media, but that they had continued to receive assaults.
“For whatever it is worth, some of these issues would be decided on the street and it is important to warn of that the same energy with which the CSOs fought the military.
“We will fight any attempt to drag us back to civil dictatorship in whatever guise.’’ he said. (NAN)
ATAB/OPI/OPI