Shackling the civic space

Two days to the commencement of the #EndBadGovernance protests, the Nigerian Civic Space Protection Alliance (NCSPA), sat in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, to examine the democratic space and how protected Nigerians are in the exercise of their constitutionally granted liberties.

NCSPA, a civil society group, does routine observation of the space, note infractions on the rights of the people as well as engage citizens and authorities on the need to protect the space.

The space is the political, social and economic environment in which citizens thrive. If the policies of government are not formulated with welfare of the people in mind; if legislation is carried out hurriedly, without allowing due process to accommodate the opinions of segments of society; and if law enforcers refuse to abide by the dictates of the Rule of Law in doing their tasks, the space could suffer limitations.

If children that are supposed to be in school are out there roaming the streets; if health budgets are not designed to guarantee safe living environment for citizens and they fall cheap preys to opportunistic ailments, that distorts the space.

Global monitors of the civic space in the latest Civicus assessment (2023) scored Nigeria 32/100, suggesting a repressed environment. That score for 2023 was worse than that of 2022, which was 35/100. Whereas the Constitution of the Federal Republic, 1999, generously provides for citizens to enjoy socio-economic rights, political operators conspire to deny citizens these offerings.

The entire Chapter Two of the 1999 Constitution – Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy – reads like a promissory note signed by the State to give citizens quality life. The social contract assures that the Nigerian State shall run on the principles of democracy and social justice, recognising that sovereignty belongs to the people. It promises that the security and welfare of citizens shall be the primary reason for signing the Nigerian contract, with a guarantee to allow the people participate in their government.

Participants at the NCSPA forum testified that the objectives of the contract, purportedly signed by the people and government have not materialised after 25 years of operation. Since 1999, the economic objectives of government have served the political class more, than cater to people’s welfare.

In 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), reported that 63 per cent of persons living within Nigeria (133 million people) suffered from multi-dimensional poverty. Today, the level of deprivation and despondency is better imagined.

Whereas the Constitution promises to harness the resources of the nation to promote prosperity for all, ordinary Nigerians are getting poorer by the day. In 1999, petrol sold for N20 per litre, and N75 by 2007. In 2024, Nigerians are queuing to buy a litre of petrol for between N600 and N1,000 per litre, depending on the location. In 1999, the price of crude per barrel was lower than $20. In 2024, it averages $80.

The more money government makes, the more it is unable to manage socio-economic inequities, simply because the political class is nasty, greedy and roguish. They allocate to themselves more resources than they deserve. The reckless enthronement of nepotism as a cardinal principle of the political party system, constitutes an affront on Section 14(4 &5) of the Constitution, and constrains the democratic space.

The petroleum tax imposed by President Tinubu’s government has edged out millions of citizens from participating in the economy. Whereas the Constitution mandates the State to “control the national economy in such a manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity,” the reality is that there is no equality of status and opportunity anywhere.

People are appointed to political offices on the basis of consanguineous relationship with people in power. Some have served in political offices since 1999, such that they have no second address outside government. They are able to survive the Tinubu petrol tax, but not so for millions of citizens. This should not be allowed in the democratic space promised in the 1999 Constitution. The summary is that the State has failed in its economic objectives and should be called to account.

The State’s social and educational objectives have equally failed. The State promised to provide protection for law-abiding citizens wherever they reside. To start with, the Constitution at Section 38 claimed the government of the Federation or of a state shall not adopt any religion as State religion.

In practice, states and the Federal Government fund religious activities, including paying subsidies for religious pilgrimages, in violation of the Constitution and Appropriation Laws, where it was not expressly stated that certain sums had been earmarked for pilgrimages.

This same government does not consider it essential to subsidise economic activities that are affected by petrol taxes. Very dubious.

The Constitution promised citizens to exercise freedom of thought, conscience and religion, but religious strife has become second nature to Nigeria. Citizens are killed extra-judicially for holding beliefs of their choice and the State appears helpless. Some unknown persons were reported to have ransacked valuable property at a Redeemed Christian Church in Kotongora, Niger State, then set it ablaze. No offence and no provocation were reported, just sheer malice and criminality.

Governor Mohammed Bago condemned the act and promised punishment for perpetrators. A similar act was reported at same location 10 years ago. If well managed, religious places offer succour to citizens in trying times, especially now; and such civic spaces deserve protection. Those who lack understanding and restraint should be educated.

When it mattered most in the 2023 general elections, there was no protection for citizens who opted to vote according to their conscience. Across the country, citizens were harassed, brutalised and denied the constitutional right to vote. Previous elections suffered same fate because politicians and their supporters refused to demonstrate maturity on matters regarding the individual’s consent in a democracy.

State operators and law enforcers make it easy for politicians to get away with abuses of the electoral space. In the aftermath of the 2023 elections, a total of 774 electoral offenders were initially reported by the Police, under former Inspector General, Usman Baba, as those who had cases to answer. Discretionary waivers at different levels of law enforcement, without third party (civil society and the media) accountability checks, pruned the numbers down to 215 and later, 196.

The Nigerian Bar Association and INEC are reported to be undergoing prosecution. No details of the exercise are available to members of the public and those who suffered damages. Some offenders were rewarded with patronages, with no lessons learned from previous violations of the civic space.

The rights contained in Chapter Four of the Constitution are explicit and self-explanatory. But when state operatives are bent on limiting and retarding the civic space, they resort to a thousand and one tactics. The anti-hunger protests provide a case study. For repression to take place in a society, institutions of state and certain non-state actors get compromised.

On the eve of the #EndBadGovernance protests, Labour that had lamented the high cost of living since May 29, 2023, developed cold feet and began to speak in equivocal terms. Labour will not join the protest, but Labour supports the protests. Such duplicity is the hallmark of black-legs who frustrate popular action. Ever willing and feeling ingratiated to be invited for talks with government, Labour, despite a finely articulated position on cost of living, laced with quality data, finally fell for a miserly N70,000 as minimum wage, in this Animal Farm, where one Senator takes home a monthly package of N21 million. To boot, Labour even showered government with praises, in uproarious dim-wittedness.

The same Labour has now suffered a black-eye from invasion of its privacy by agents of government. From the police account, the suspicion that warranted the invasion of Labour House might be linked to the protests. Better to stand for something when it matters.

Since 1999, the Parliament has never pretended to be enamored of noble intentions, with just a little exception. When they resisted President Obasanjo’s tight-fisted economics, it was simply for their own good. When they were in bed with President Buhari for eight years, the economy bled to a coma, while they developed rosy cheeks.

The leader of that particular rubber-stamp Assembly bears a rotund testimony to that. Today, the parliamentarians are eating while hunger chased the people out to the streets. Godswill Akpabio and the leadership represent themselves, not the people. Instead of robust debates before policies are formulated, they rush to pass bills and constrict the democratic space.

Once upon a time, students formed the foot soldiers for pro-democracy and anti-military activism. Students were irrepressible and were determined not to compromise. Today’s students’ union leaders have turned themselves to supporters’ group for government activities. They’ve lost verve.

The Judiciary was defined to be the last hope of the common man. In Lagos, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the judiciary worked very hard to frustrate the right of the people to protest peacefully. They issued orders barring citizens from working the streets, where their voices could be heard by the repressive regime. Even in the most barbaric days of the military, the judiciary was not compelled to issue such anti-people orders. Protesters went everywhere, damning the consequences.

And the Media. Reeling from the pangs of bad economy foisted by wrong policies of government in the past nine years, the media is simply trying to gain balance and to stay out of further trouble. Others have willfully abdicated their constitutional assignment for regime endorsement. A handful of irrepressible investigative hands have refused to be intimidated.

A new report by Global Expression, last week, ranked Nigeria 16th on freedom of expression in Africa, with a score of 53, representing a restricted landscape.

Hope it doesn’t get worse when Tajudeen Abbas returns with an amended Counter-Subversion Bill. What a shame!