SAC is a coalition of volunteers including students across tertiary institutions in Nigeria, working together to promote transparency and accountability in government
By Jude-Ken Ojinnaka
A Lagos based human rights and advocacy organisation, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) on Thursday engaged students of tertiary institutions across the country on its civic engagement campaign titled ‘Stand up for Human Rights’
The campaign, which was organized in collaboration with the National Endowment for Democracy aimed at engaging members of SERAP Accountability Club (SAC) across tertiary institutions in Nigeria in a dialogue to discuss human rights, including rights to freedom of expression and assembly and to encourage students and student bodies to promote, advance and defend human rights, promote transparency and accountability for good governance.
The event which held at Ikeja Lagos featured discussions on ways students can help to advocate for good governance within their immediate community, local government areas, States and the country as a whole. The event also featured parliamentary debate by participants on vote buying on election days in Nigeria and how to seek Freedom of Information Act, how to obtain information under the Act, how to employ FOI Act to encourage transparency and accountability.
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Besides, the erstwhile officers of SAC were dissolved and the newly appointed officers/coordinators were inaugurated.
In a group discussion, participants discussed ways students can promote good governance in Nigeria. They mentioned accountable leadership at all levels, getting Permanent Voters Card (PVC), Speaking up, not accepting and giving bribe, leading by good example, cooperating with SERAP in advocacy and discouraging corruption in any form.
The new SERAP Accountability Club officers sworn in were David Ugochukwu as coordinator, Ifeoluwa Williams as Assistant coordinator and Obed Covenant Deberechi as Secretary for University of Lagos (Unilag) chapter while Zainab Enilojaji as coordinator, Obega Favour as Assistant coordinator and Olayemi Elizabeth as Secretary for Lagos State University (LASU) chapter.
The ultimate aim of the campaign is to foster public support for freedom of expression and assembly and to protect and advance civic space by improving the accountability of government and respect for human rights in Nigeria.
Recall that in meeting with the prevailing need for effective public involvement and participation in promoting transparency and accountability in the use of public resources, SERAP had set up the SERAP Accountability Club (hereinafter referred to as “SAC” or “Club”) to encourage young Nigerians, particularly students in tertiary institutions to actively participate in the fight against corruption and contribute to the efforts to promote the rule of law based society.
SAC is a coalition of volunteers including students across tertiary institutions in Nigeria, working together to promote transparency and accountability in government as well as effective delivery of essential public goods and services in Nigeria.
The goal of SERAP’s Accountability Club (SAC) is to be a national, unified voice and network for advocacy, information sharing and capacity building whilst mobilising and engaging Nigerian citizens, particularly students of tertiary institutions across the country in promoting transparency and
accountability.
As a transparency, accountability, and socio-economic rights-oriented network, SAC is committed to promote and advance transparency and accountability among its members, as well as encouraging government to improve effective delivery of public goods and services such as water, health and education.
Importantly, SAC is a platform to facilitate dialogue among key stakeholders to improve and strengthen transparency and accountability in tertiary institutions, promote the use of accountability processes, procedure and mechanisms by students.
To achieve the expectations set above, SERAP came up with a policy framework to guide the operations of SAC and how individual members are expected to act in a manner consistent with the standard procedures of the Club.
The policy guidelines aimed to assist members of the Club to put into practice the obligations and principles.
