By Oladele Martins.
The Executive Director, Building Blocks for Peace Foundation, Mr. Rafiu Lawal, has decried the situations under which the Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria were operating.
Lawal made the disclosure in an opening address at a One- Day Multi-Stakeholders dialogue on civil-military relations in South-West, held in Ibadan.
He said that the CSOs operates under intense pressure and working under a shrinking civil space.
Our correspondent reports that the roundtable, with the theme: “Improving Civil Military Relations in the South-West” was organised by the Building Blocks for Peace Foundation.
It was organised in collaboration with Action Group on Free Civic Space-a coalition of civil society organisations in the South-West, and funded by Fund Global Human Rights.
Lawal said that the Federal Government should provide a healthy environment for CSOs to operate, where there would be liberty and unviolated human rights.
He said with this, there would be improved collaboration and trust between state actors and civil society organisations in the South-West.
Earlier, Dr Tola Winjobi, National Co-ordinator, Civil Society Coalition on Sustainable Development, said the civil space in the south west was shrinking and under significant pressure.
He said that more fundamental factors responsible which according to him range from those caused by state actors and others caused by non-state actors.
“There is high restriction on foreign funding, barriers to registrations, interventions in CSOs internal affairs and other forms of harassment have proliferated.
“Restrictions on freedom of association and assembly rights including the tide of restrictive legislation have engendered a climate of fear in the civic space globally.
“These restrictions have affected the activities of civil society organisations, the media and individual activists,“he said.
The pinpointnews reports that the roundtable agreed on the following recommendations in order to improve on the shrinking civil-military relations in Nigeria:
“Creation of community sensitisation and community awareness.
“Nigerian citizens should dress and behave decently to avoid embarrassment or being picked-up during chaos due to their appearance.
“Security agencies are supposed to protect the populace during protests and therefore avoid situations where civilians are mistakenly shot.
“There should be collaborations and coalition between security state actors and civil society organisations on how to improve the civil–military relations in the South-West.
“The shrinking civil space is an opportunity for government to give room for more engagement with civil societies.”
Fifty participants taken from the para-military organisations like EFCC, NSCDC, ICPC, religious leaders, community leaders, the media, legal profession, the academia and NGOs attended the dialogue
