A civil society organisation on the aegis of HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA), on Monday, July 8, 2024 accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration of running an opaque style of government that lacked openness, transparency and accountability.
HURIWA said with this style of administration, the Tinubu-led government will continued to be misunderstood and mistrusted by majority of Nigerians both home and abroad.
The organisation spoke against the backdrop of the statement credited to the Federal Government that it would file a complaint against the Daily Trust Newspapers to the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) over its publication on the SAMOA agreement as well approach the court over the report it described as “fake and mischievous”.
HURIWA in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, noted that the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, who stated the position of the Federal Government on Saturday in Abuja, faulted the report by Daily Trust which claimed that the government signed an agreement with clauses requiring Nigeria to endorse the rights of Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI+) people.
Daily Trust also reported that Nigeria would collect 150 billion dollars for endorsing the deal, adding that the agreement, generally referred to as the SAMOA agreement, was signed on June 28, 2024 at the Organisation of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) Secretariat in Brussels, Belgium.
The medium also reported that details of the agreement indicated that the partnership is between the European Union and its member states on one hand, and members of OACPCS on the other, adding that negotiations on the agreement began in 2018, and it was signed on 15 November 2018 by all 27 EU member states and 47 of the 79 OACPS states.
It also said that the African Regional Protocol on the matter consists of two parts – framework for cooperation and areas of cooperation that include inclusive and sustainable economic growth, environmental and human rights protection, among others.
However, HURIWA said that the government should have itself to blame for any perceived misgivings on the so-called SAMOA agreement since it is running runs a administration akin to a secret society instead of opening up its policies, programmes and initiatives and subject them to public scrutiny before implementation.
It said that since democracy is a government of the people, for the people and by the people in addition to the fact that Section 13(2) (b) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, states that the welfare and security of the people is the primary duty of government, there is the need to allow and encourage citizens to participate in governance.
According to HURIWA: “Sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from where Government draws legitimacy to exercise authority”.
