Na’Abba: CNG Flays FG over Poor Handling of Citizens’ Rights to Expression
The Coalition of Northern Groups, CNG, the umbrella body of civil society organisations operating in Northern Nigeria has condemned the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration’s handling of citizens’ rights to freedom of expression.
The group’s position is against the backdrop of the recent invitation extended to former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba by the Department of State Services, DSS for allegedly making inciting remarks as a guest of a television station last week
In a statement by its spokesman, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, CNG said it finds it worrisome “that the current administration is becoming more and more intolerant of opposition and criticism and gradually dragging the country towards becoming a police state.
“We find this attempt to harass Na’Abba, a senior citizen and critical stakeholder in the nation’s democratic process, a brutal encroachment on the universal citizen’s right to freedom of expression which is a fundamental characteristic of any democratic state.”
It further noted that “by its continuous attempt to suppress the existence of the right to freedom of expression which includes the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by the public authority, President Muhammadu Buhari administration is exposing its failure in sportsmanship, statesmanship and political craftsmanship.
“It is ridiculous that those who run this government who happened to have benefited the most from the previous administration’s tolerant disposition should be the ones denying others the same right they enjoyed.
“The CNG repudiates this unhealthy, undemocratic trend of government’s exercise of power through security agencies to impose restrictions on citizens’ mobility or their freedom to express or communicate political or other news and hold it unacceptable.
“We insist that every Nigerian has right to freedom of expression which is not only a primary cornerstone of democracy but also prerequisite for the enjoyment of many other rights and freedoms ensured In our constitution and international conventions must be respected.
“We, therefore, find it absolutely unacceptable for a people who in no way bore the brunt of the struggle for the return to democracy to be hellbent now on scuttling it.”
The invitation of the former Speaker is coming less than a week after former Presidential candidate, Dr Obadiah Mailafia was similarly summoned by the DSS for making an unsubstantiated claim against an unnamed governor.
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