By Ishaya Ibrahim
A new report on the civic space in West Africa has identified Free speech as the right that is most at risk in the subregion, with Nigeria topping the list in the number of violations.
The report titled Civic Space in West Africa: Trends, Threats and Futures, found that aggressive clampdown on free speech accounts for 64 per cent of all civic space violations within the period 2016 and 2022 when the cases were tracked.
The report, curated from closingspaces.org, is the work of a nongovernmental organization, Spaces for Change, with support from Ford Foundation.
Out of the 345 incidents of free speech repression documented within the period of study, 242 occurred in Nigeria, followed by Ghana with 19 cases, Liberia with 14 and Cape Verde with one.
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The report also found that Nigeria has the highest number of incidents of crackdown on press and media freedoms. Out of the 207 cases tracked in the report, 122 were recorded in Nigeria, Ghana had 16 cases and Liberia had 14.
Executive director of Spaces for Change, Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri said expressing one’s thoughts, especially online in West Africa, comes with greater costs and risks.
The report also projects future trends and threats to the civic space in West Africa.
The report found five major drivers for the attack on the civic space in the subregion. They include; coups, elections, youth bulge, digital technologies, and insecurity.
The report said persisting bad governance combined with widespread anger and political reawakening among large swathes of unemployed youths in West African countries would incite military coups and more protests across the subregion.
The report also indicated that the internet would empower tech-savvy youths to organize, mobilize and propel the rise of people power through continuous expansion of the spaces for civic engagement.
The report noted that international terrorism would redraw the lines between external and internal security, emboldening governments to use insecurity as an excuse to curtail civic freedoms.
During the panel session to review the report, one of the speakers, Marilyn Obasi-Osula, commended Spaces for Change over the report and said its findings aligned with the report of the World Economic Forum which forecast social unrest in its outlook of Nigeria.
A representative of the National Human Right Commission (NHRC), Lucas Koyejo, said the report is apt, adding that we don’t have to shy away from the fact.
He said it is troubling that when there is a protest, the police believe they have the right to intervene and even shoot. For him, giving policemen live ammunition to quell a protest is akin to giving them the green light to shoot.
Kolawale Oluwadare of SERAP said the civic space is where we can have dissent in perspective, but the outcome must always be to improve the well-being of humanity.
For the representative of Vision Spring Initiative, Udoh Mary, the youths must demand accountability from the government.