A proposed bill by Eddi Ifeanyichukwu Mbadiwe, member of the House of Representatives, to regulate and control the funding of civil society groups in the country is causing uproar. For instance, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN, said the bill which seeks to regulate the acceptance and utilization of financial/material contributions from foreign donor agencies is anti-people and a slap on the face of individuals who fought for and paid the ultimate price for the entrenchment of democracy in Nigeria.

ERA/FoEN stated that the bill is an unnecessary distraction from the gains of democracy and a misnomer. According to Godwin Ojo, executive director, ERA/FoEN, the bill is unacceptable as “it is a throw back of the military era. We reject this draconian bill which we see as a throwback to the military era when human rights activists were molested, hounded underground and thrown into jail for the most flimsy of reasons. It is totally unacceptable that civil society organisations must go begging to the ICPC to obtain funds. This anomaly should be rejected by our lawmakers.”

The ERA/FoEN official insisted that the bill was a brazen strategy to crackdown on both indigenous and international organizations working in Nigeria. “This is a contrived attempt to gag CSOs and the work of promoting accountability, human rights and filling the gaps in service delivery, where government has failed. For us, it is really disappointing that at this time that the nation should be on auto pilot in the entrenchment of democracy some individuals are still contriving a scheme to weaken the capacity of CSOs to play their traditional roles of watchdog over society and especially public officials,” Ojo disclosed.