Legal practitioners and civil society organisations (CSOs), Wednesday, met in Abuja to deliberate on the Amended Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA 2020) and other draconian laws affecting Nigerians.
Speaking during the strategy meeting, with the theme: “Solutions Lab: Resisting draconian laws and regulations on civic freedoms in Nigeria”, the Chairman, Human Rights Institute of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chino Obiagwu, SAN, said that the constitutional role of the judiciary is to balance executive and legislative powers
“There is a saying that judiciary is the last hope of the common man. If the executive is engaged in muzzling people and the legislature is engaged in making repressive laws, the judiciary has to intervene or it will fail Nigerians. We are concerned that judiciary in Nigeria have not showed that passion in the freedom of the people.
“Just this morning, someone was imprisoned for a month for criticising the Akwa Ibom government on social media. How could a court do that? Restricting right to freedom of expression? The judiciary has so far not responded to the need of our people. It is high time we drew attention to them that closing the civic space will also affect the judiciary. The judiciary has a great role to play to ensure that any draconian law is set aside,” he said.
Also speaking, Senior Legal Officer, Open Society Justice Initiative, Kadiri Maxwell, said that, ahead of the 2023 general elections, the electorate will be sensitised on rejecting their representatives at the National Assembly involved in making draconian laws.
“People need to understand what is being done to address the challenges and also plug in. They should know what their representatives at the National Assembly are doing to marginalise the people by passing repressive laws. Many of them may be in the ballot in 2023, so the people will know that the politicians are not the types to represent them at the National Assembly.
“It takes the connection of what is happening in the court room to the court of public opinion and links to preparations for 2023. Though campaigns may soon start, it is still possible to take up National Assembly members on amending some of the draconian laws before they become busy with campaigns,” he said.
Speaking earlier, the Executive Director of Global Rights, Abiodun Baiyewu, lamented that, in the past 10 years, successive governments have passed draconian legislations and regulations to limit freedom of expression and citizens’ dissent.
She said: “This Solution Lab is to review draconian laws by the government and how civil society should engage on this issue. The civic space in Nigeria is being repressed by many laws. For example, our colleagues at Spaces for Change have recorded 426 infractions on the civic space by the government, a lot of them against the media.
“More than 112 infractions against the media. Currently, we have more than 9 draconian bills at the national assembly that are not just a threat to the civic space, but against the security of our nationhood and we cannot allow that to continue.
“We are going into 2023 elections and we must begin to think of how to engage as a people beyond just voting and the politics around elections, to ensure that we are able to hold government accountable through the laws and the policies they proffer to our civic space. The civic space belongs to the people of Nigeria and not just a ridicule of people. So we must protect the civic space.
“This Solution Lab is one of the things we are trying to do to find solution to the issues of infractions. One of the things we readily identify is the role of citizens themselves and helping citizens to understand what goes on.
“We are also discovering that these laws are not just at the federal level, but the infractions at the state levels are as bad as those at the federal levels. So, we have to engage civil society organisations from the national to ensure they also hold state assemblies accountable and that we are holding government at every level accountable regarding human rights abuses.”