Nwanguma says in a democracy, the government fears the people, and not the other way round. But in Nigeria, the people have been cowed
By Ishaya Ibrahim
Executive Director of the Rule of Law Advocacy and Accountability Centre (RULAAC), Okechukwu Nwanguma, has urged Nigerians not to cede any more of their civic space to tyrants.
Nwanguma, in a statement, wondered how the people who ought to be feared, are now the ones that have been cowed to cede their democratic rights to tyrants.
Nwanguma said: “Democracy is inseparable from freedom of expression. We can’t talk of democracy in a country where the people cannot freely associate and peacefully assemble.
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“Government has no powers under any Nigerian law to ban peaceful assembly and protests. Not under any pretext. Freedoms of association, assembly and association are constitutionally protected and inviolable rights. Citizens do not need the permit of security agencies to exercise them.
“Claims by security agencies that they have security reports that ‘miscreants’ or ‘hoodlums’ plan to hijack peaceful protests are often a ruse under which they hide to prevent the people from expressing their concerns about government’s failures and to hold them accountable.
Nwanguma further explained, “The duty of security agencies is to provide protection for people wishing to exercise their rights, not to hinder them under any guise.
“In any case, hoodlums and miscreants are creations of bad governance. Those miscreants are created by government’s bad policies and failure to provide education, jobs and social security.”
According to Nwanguma, “Government cannot, therefore, hide under the consequences of its own failure to stop the people from exercising their fundamental rights.
“Government is working hard to instil fear in the people and to close the shrinking democratic space. Nigerians must not cede any more space to tyrants.
‘Government should fear the people, not the people fear government.”