NGO Regulatory Bill: FG Wants To Gag NGOs/CSOs Before 2019 Election - Rights Monitoring Group



The Rights Monitoring Group, a coalition of 45 civil society groups has described the NGO Regulatory Bill currently before the National Assembly as draconian. Speaking in an interview with irukkanews, it's National Coordinator,Comrade Olufemi Aduwo said the federal government by that bill want to cow civil society groups from performing their roles which is primarily to put government, its agencies and departments on their toes.

According to him,the plan by the APC led federal government is to try to delist Non Governmental Organizations and Civil Society groups that it is not comfortable with. However, he said such plan would not work as no NGO or CSO that knows it's onion would allow government to deter it from performing it's statutory role. He said regulating NGO/CSO has never worked in anywhere in the world,adding that Nigeria would not be the exception. He said that the present democracy in the country was the handwork of CSOs who defied the military government .

"In 2015,the All Progressives Congress deceived Nigerians into believing that President Muhammadu Buhari has become a democrat,that he has dropped his military mentality.A lot of people believed them ,forgetting that a leopard can hardly change its complexion..But today,what are we seeing in the country.Every place has become militarized.Even the military is now doing the job of the Police.We can use what happened in Abia state as a typical example.What happened there was nothing but a civil case which did not require military intervention but because we have returned to military government,Army was drafted to the state and now the whole thing has backfired.The international community is now laughing at us over our attempt to defend the indefensible.What this government should know is that we are now in Internet age and anything that happens goes viral,no matter how hard we try to cover it" He said

According to him,the main objective of the proposed NGO regulatory bill could be to gag Nigerians before the 2019 presidential election. However,he said the attempt would fail ,even if government proscribe all the NGOs/CSOs in the country. Aduwo called on all the NGOs in the country to remain steadfast in their commitment to the country. According to him, if they allow themselves to be regulated by government,it means their integrity would come to question. His words,

"The bill said that the NGOs would be subject to re-registration every two years.How can you criticize a government ,department or agency for corruption or wrong doing and go back to them for registration after two years?What the bill simply want to do is to make all the NGOs and CSOs in the country their mouthpiece,that is ,it is either you speak good of them or you would not be registered."

http://irukkanews.com/ngo-regulatory-bill-fg-wants-to-gag-ngoscsos-before-election-right-p2454-95.htm

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