As part of initiatives to reduce Nigeria’s reliance on foreign sources for civic space data, the Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI) organized a one-day on-site civic-tech and human rights clinic for select civil society organizations and media outlets working in the Southeast region on Monday.
The participants were drawn from the five Southeastern states.
The programme held in Enugu is part of a national rollout across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, designed to equip participants with the skills and tools to effectively use, apply, and amplify the Building Resilient Spaces (BRS) project platform within their programmes and networks.
Participants were taken through hands-on training and structured onboarding on the use of the BRS platform for civic incident reporting, civic data tracking, regional threat analysis, and engagement with available support mechanisms.
Speaking during the programme, the KDI Executive Director, Bukola Idowu, observed that most of the data quoted in human rights and civic space issues in Nigeria were from foreign sources, a development he noted has left the image of the country at the mercy of such organizations.
According to him, “Nigeria has released its sovereignty to foreign bodies and whatever they say has influenced how the world responds to us.”
He also regretted the absence of structured, verifiable channels for escalating incidents that shrink civic space across the country and receive proper attention, noting that the gaps identified during a nationwide engagement necessitated the development of the BRS platform.
“This platform is to enable us to develop a homegrown verifiable data on our situation. We want to know whether the insecurity and the human rights issues reported by these foreign organizations are defining us, or if they are being exaggerated.
“We know that there may be some truth in the data released, quite alright, but does that keep us at the bottom five as these foreign organizations place us? Meanwhile, many things are happening elsewhere that are not exaggerated like ours.
“So, we need to begin to create our data ourselves as they are happening,” he said.
Idowu said the platform is also designed to provide sufficient data for relevant stakeholder institutions at the federal and state levels to begin addressing the problems before they escalate.
According to him, there is a collective commitment by relevant stakeholder institutions to work together to address the problems once they have been reported and verified.
“This provides the platform to give us a true picture as to who we are and help the institutions responsible to respond.
“Initially, we have been working in silos- the police, the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, the judiciary, the legislature, the civil society, and others.
“But, this is the first time we are coming together to agree that there is a problem and we are ready to work together to address it. When we get the information on what is happening, the institutions responsible have committed to taking up the information and taking action.
“We want to provide empirical and verifiable evidence for them to work with. So, it is going to be better than when the institutions generate the information themselves and take action themselves,” Idowu posited.
In his remarks, a senior program manager with the KDI, Abiodun Banjoko said part of their observations was also the continued shrinking of the civic space, which has gone under-reported for a long time.
“Across the country, we see a lot of these. The crackdown on ENDSARS and ENDBADGOVERNANCE protesters, the introduction of some laws that are against the free operation of the civic space, are all evident to this.
“So we provided a platform where citizens can anonymously send reports of human rights and civic space infringements.
“It is unique because it has a feature where the citizens can send information anonymously, without being identified, and their information will be verified,” he said.
On his part, a Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute of Peace, Security and Development Studies, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Prof. Jaja Nwanegbo, welcomes the idea of the online platform, describing it as a laudable initiative that will contribute immediately to expanding civic space participation.
“It is a beautiful development, because one of the major problems we have in society is the shrinking of the civic space. It is affecting people’s participation in politics, the realization of human rights, and their opinions as members of civil society.
“Therefore, the platform opens up for society an opportunity to air their voices without it being traced to them.
“Again, it makes room for verification of information before publication.
Finally, the engagement of the relevant institutions in the process to ensure that action is taken when information is provided is a big plus for the entire process, as opposed to what we used to see.
“So, I think it is a right introduction into the civic space,” Prof Nwanegbo posited.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Guild of Public Affairs Analysts, Enugu State Chapter, Dr. Ambrose Igboke, observed that the numerous inputs into expanding the civic space in the country place a burden of responsibility on the CSOs to operate professionally and not engage in acts that can jeopardize the system.
“When we see efforts such as this done by the KDI, what readily comes to mind is the reminder that we, as civil society, must now sit up to our responsibilities and not constitute a cog in the wheel of the same process we claim we are fighting to make it work,” Igboke said.
Other participants during the hands-on training on the use of the platform had the opportunity to make inputs towards the smooth functioning of the initiative, ahead of its official launch.
