NOA, CODE collaborate to improve civic space for sustainable democracy
By Angela Atabo
Connected Development (CODE) is to collaborate with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) towards addressing and improving Nigeria’s shrinking civic space for sustainable democracy.
CODE in partnership with the National Orientation Agency (NOA), with support from the OXFAM held a dialogue geared towards analysing the trends and drivers of shrinking civic space under the Digital Media and Communications for Civic Inclusion Project.
The Director-General of NOA, Garba Abari, said that expanding the civic space was actually not a concern for Nigerian alone but a global issue.
Abari said this therefore, calls for the need to deepen the democratic space.
“You cannot be talking about deepening the civic space without taking in concomitant terms the democratic space and this is of great importance.
“When we are talking about expanding the democratic space , we are talking about the inclusion, however, that does not necessarily mean allowing people to come out and vote during elections after every four years.
“We are talking about inclusion of vulnerable groups, like youths ,women and persons with disabilities.”
Abari said that to achieve such inclusion , there was need to therfore implement the Disabilities Act and political parties needed to be imbibe internal democracy to strengthen participation of women and youths in politics for sustainable democracy.
Also speaking, Mr Hamzat Lawal, Chief Executive of CODE, noted that the Digital Media and Communications for Civic Inclusion Project was aimed at harnessing the power of the media and civil society to address some of the factors contributing to the shrinkage of the civic space.
“We all know and can agree that the role of civil society is crucial to our democracy, CSOs provides essential services, helps and advocates for victims, monitors human rights and collects evidence of violations to hold powers responsible to account.
“CSOs helps in a way to stabilise and preserve our democracy, but for doing this, civil society comes under attack, and these attacks are coming from different angles. ”
Lawal added that fake news, misinformation, disinformation were undermining Nigeria’s democracy and truncating national unity.
“We have seen in countless ways how disinformation can be used to influence negative and extremist views, a good example is the just concluded elections.
“There are also different attempts to counter fake news and disinformation with fact checking initiatives but fact-checking initiatives are only a first step.”
Lawal however, said that the challenge remained ineffective collaboration of the media and civil society to counter disinformation .
He said that this must include better regulation of the social media and technology industry, developed through participatory processes and including safeguards for freedom of expression.
Contributing, the Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, Mr Tony Ojukwu,SAN, said that the civic space was shrinking in Nigeria due to non-observation of regional and international instruments that guaranteed the protection of the right to freedom.
Ojukwu represented by Mrs Agharese Arase Director, Corporate Affairs and External Linkages, said that censorship and restrictions violate the fundamental rights of citizens to freedom of opinion and expression.
He said that arbitrary arrest ,detention ,politically motivated criminal charges and sedition laws further shrink the civic space .
He said that it was the duty of the media to to avail the society with information on matters of public interest, create platforms for scrutiny, public debate and reflection .
He said that the gains of allowing a free civic space far outweighs any effort at shrinking it because shrinking civic space may lead to undemocratic practices and lack of transparency in governance.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event was aimed at identifying ways to educate the masses on the role and value of civil society and the civic space.
The roundtable discussion was one of the first steps towards defending and expanding the shrinking civic space in Nigeria by focusing on the reorientation of the masses and building the capacity of key stakeholders.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Sadiya Hamza
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