Reps defend controversial NGOs regulation bill

THE Deputy Majority Leader, House of Representatives, Honourable Umar Buba Jibril, on Friday said that the piece of legislation to regulate the activities of non-Government Organizations and Civil Society Organisations currently before the House was meant to sanitise the NGOs and CSOs operation in the country.

The Deputy House Leader in a statement issued in Abuja claimed that “religious bodies and organizations are not NGOs.”

The statement read in part: “Our quasi financial institutions at local levels are NOT NGOs! These organizations have existed for centuries to serve businesses and commerce of our market women and traders.

“Now NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and CSOs (Civil Society Organizations) are voluntary organizations that are registered to partner Government at all levels to fill gaps wherever they exist.

“They are supposed to be partners in progress with the Government; therefore, the need for a commission to serve this purpose arises.

“Secondly and naturally for them to carry out their activities, the NGOs and CSOs solicit for funds from all over the World and collect billions of naira on behalf of Nigerians!

“Thirdly they recruit expatriates to help them run their activities in the country with lots of abuses.

“However, recent developments have shown that; some people registered NGOs, solicited for funds and disappeared. That happened recently in the North East.

“Some NGOs are used to fund the activities of terrorist and insurgents! etc.

“The NGOs bill therefore is primarily to set up a commission to regulate their activities and provide a platform for robust relationships between them and the government for the interests of Nigerians.

“In addition, it is to ensure transparency and accountability in the ways and manners the NGOs collect moneys and use them for Nigerians.

“The NGOs bill is not new or peculiar to Nigeria. It exists in many countries particularly in the ECOWAS sub-region and all over Africa and other continents. In Europe, Israel passed theirs last year! Kenya has a similar law since 1990!

“Nigeria is and should not be a banana republic where anything goes.

“Finally, the way the NGOs are reacting to this wonderful and well packaged bill particularly SERAP is not only shameful but condemnable.

“The Nigerian parliament is an institution governed by rules and traditions. When a bill is for public hearing you go there and present your views like other interested Nigerians and invited cooperate bodies and government agencies for the standing committee to do justice to the bill. Period!

“Going on cheap propaganda and blackmail and even calling on World bodies including the United Nation to help you withdraw a bill from our National Assembly will not help you!” the statement concluded.