COMMUNIQUE/POSITION PAPER OF CSO ROUNDTABLE ON PEACE, SECURITY, HUMAN RIGHT PROTECTION AND DEVELOPMENT

[BEN USANG]

A COMMUNIQUE/POSITION PAPER ISSUED AT THE END OF A TWO DAY CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS(C.S.O) ROUNDTABLE ON PEACE,SECURITY,HUMAN RIGHT PROTECTION AND DEVELOPMENT

HELD AT THE ADF/CRSCS OFFICE, IKOT ANSA,CALABAR

ON THE 31ST OF OCTOBER,2020 AND THE 3RD OF NOVEMBER,2020

 

PREAMBLE

Following the ENDSARS Protest which erupted across Nigeria and triggered youth unrest predicated on a widespread discontent occasioned by allegation of gross Human Right Abuses by a Special Unit of the Nigerian Police Force known as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), between September and October, 2020 on a scale never experienced before.  Calabar, the capital of Cross River State and its environs became the epicenter of the crisis in the country with massive looting, burning and vandalisation of public and private assets.

Whereas the ENDSARS Protest was largely considered to be peaceful, the ensuing violence and vandalism took everyone by surprise. The totally unexpected development was shocking and quite disturbing, necessitating an urgent and dispassionate appraisal of the various dimensions of the crisis and its impact in order to proffer immediate actions that should be considered by various stakeholders to turn around the fortunes of the state.

Civil Society Activist/Development Workers in the State:

Bothered by the impact of the foregoing to the Peace, Security, Human Right Protection and Development of the State;

Concerned that if immediate steps were not taken in the short term, the state would remain in an atmosphere of a shaky peace, unresolved tensions and potential for another violent uprising;

Resolved to organize a Roundtable open to interested representatives of Civil Society Organisations in the state to deliberate and arrive at a common position and make proactive recommendations for engaging with other stakeholders and reclaiming the battered glory of the State.

OBSERVATIONS

It was observed that:

Ø The ENDSARS protest was spontaneous, resulting from anger over human right abuses by the SARS Unit ;

Ø Upon the decision of the  Federal Government to scrap SARS and establish on a later date The Special Weapons and Tactical Unit(SWAT), the protesters came up with additional demands for Government to address, such as addressing Police brutality, Poverty, Electoral Reforms, Prices of some public utility services, salary of lawmakers Etc;

Ø The protest lacked leadership and proper representation of the protesters who were mostly youths;

Ø In Cross River State, the violence and vandalism seemed triggered by    improper communication of information on delivery and eventual distribution of the COVID - 19 palliatives by the government;

Ø The loss of public confidence in the constituted civil authority occasioned by an inability to ‘walk their talk’ in the days leading up to 23rd October, 2020.

 

DECLARATIONS

Participants at the Roundtable hereby declare that :

i. They Condemn in the strongest terms the violence, criminality and arsons that exploded within Calabar and its environs;

ii.Should  formal and informal authority further allow  their influence to diminish, the governed may continue to resort to violence as a response to the scenario and this will further set back the state in a dimension that will not be helpful to any citizen of good conscience;

iii.They desire a new approach to governance, that is transparent, accountable, selfless, masses oriented, if the programmes and services of government are to lead to the solutions of the crisis highlighted herein; 

iv.It worries them that actions of the state government are being perceived by many citizens as being dishonestly orchestrated with huge underlying trust issues creating internal contradictions even within the system. This is particularly as it relates to values, practices and actions happening between the people and government;

 

V. They are committed to the enthronement of Peace, Security, Human Right Protection and Development consequently their actions and that of their organisations will be in furtherance of this commitments and not otherwise or emphasizing one while downplaying the other. On this note the desire other organisations to emulate their avowed commitment herein stated.

ACTION BASED RESOLUTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS

This section seeks to highlight the following: 

i.Identification of concrete steps for government to take in reaching a social compact with the citizens of the state to restore hope and bring back dignity to the people as well confidence and trust of those in authority;

ii.it also identifies key activities to be undertaken by the Cross River State government to assuage the anger from the youths and restore peace, security, human right protection and sustainable development;

iii. Lastly, it identifies the roles of other stakeholders in the restoration, security, human right protection and development of the state especially in the hotspots where violence, vandalism and looting occurred.

These Steps consist of immediate actions as well as aspirational goals for the transformation of the State.  The highlighted areas provide short term actions needed to ensure greater equity and inclusion for the young men and women of the state while also addressing the perceived lopsidedness in many of the actions of government and poor commitment of other stakeholders to the Peace, Security, Human Right Protection and Development of the State.

Being a recommendation for the Peace, Security, Human Right Protection and Development of Cross River State, it is therefore governed by principles aimed at reducing inequality and mutual distrust between those who govern and the governed, address the distribution of opportunities and wealth, ensure the openness of government to scrutinize and build greater responsiveness on the part of security operatives to matters of lives and property, while ensuring that they operate with appropriate procedures for upholding human rights of the citizens they are charged to protect.

Consequent upon the foregoing, the CSO Roundtable Resolved as follows:

i.To Call on all men and women of good conscience to arise,  defend  the city of calabar and the state in general from further orchestrated decline as well as demand that all criminals are apprehended and made to repatriate or face justice for their roles in looting and vandalism of Public and Private assets in the State;

ii. To Call on the government to investigate and address the causes of events leading to the collapse of the Security Architecture of the state that resulted in the total breakdown of law and order on the 23rd and the 24th of October,2020;

iii. To Call on the Federal and State Government to immediately identify the urgent needs of the Nigerian Police Force and provide some of such needs to the Force while providing financial support to officers or their families who may have been injured or killed in recent times for discharging their legitimate functions or simply targeted for belonging to the Police Force;

iv. To Call on the Nigerian Police Force to rise up to their constitutional responsibility of policing and securing the Country which in some cases was no longer carried out with zeal and commitment due to the prevailing attitude of hostility against them among the citizenry in the aftermath of the ENDSARS protest and ensuing violence;

v. To Call on Government to take proactive positive steps to arrest the unprecedented decline in the quality of governance and aim for slim, efficient and manageable government;

vi.To Call on the State Government to implement the autonomy of Local Governments and the State legislature as propounded by the Federal Government;

vii. To Call on the Government, Civil Society, Private Sector and Development Partners to formulate an implementable mechanism for poverty eradication, youth development and police reforms while also taking immediate steps to restore, rebuild and maintain existing infrastructure in the state;

viii.To Call on the Government, Civil Society Organisations in the State and the Private Sector to enter into formal discussions with a view to establishing a Youth Support Welfare Scheme, herein recommended, that will result in 100,000 youths (who are in desperate financial need for survival) per year being given the sum N30, 000 per month to cater for themselves in difficult circumstances. In furtherance of this, the Roundtable demand  the process of selection and the adopted criteria be open and transparent and that the scheme should be equally managed by the multi-stakeholders representatives from the Government, Civil Society and the Private Sector;

ix.To call on the State Governor to work in tandem with the National Judicial Council and lobby the State House of Assembly to set mechanism rolling that will result in the appointment of a substantive Chief Judge while desisting from undue interference with the independence of the Judiciary as is being perceived by some citizens;

x. To call on the State Government to commence the employment, reinstatement  and regularization of young persons into the civil service as promised by the State Governor to assuage the protesters, while ensuring that the employment is reflective of the composition of the state;

xi. To call on the State Government to immediately address the long term grievances of its work force by paying outstanding pensions, gratuity, promotion entitlements and other statutory benefits of its current and retired  employees;

xii. To call on the Federal/State Governments, Civil Society Organizations and Political Parties to support Electoral Commissions in the State and Country to Conduct credible elections, de-escalate election violence, ensure non-interference with the independence of the commissions and promote democratic practices in the political parties such as non-imposition of candidates in elections going forward;

xiii. To call on the State Government  to re-evaluate its capacity to undertake mega projects while being unable/uninterested in taking up basic services such as road maintenance, security of lives/properties, portable water supply and refuse disposal in the urban centers of the state which has resulted in poor perception/derision of the governance competence of the government;

xiv. To Call on the State government to commit itself to undertake only those projects it can complete within the remaining period of its tenure without incurring any additional debt for the State and to show goodwill by forging a genuine partnership with the Private Sector in the state with a view to re-opening the State as a preferred destination for genuine internal and external investments in the properly identified critical socio-economic development drivers of the state;

xv.To call on the State Government, Local and International Human Right Organizations, other Civil Society Organizations and Development Partners to leverage on their capacities and work together to establish a Citizen  Right Protection Agency for the State;

xvi.To call on the State Government to re-assess all its socio-economic intervention programmes and systematically channel them towards addressing the massive unemployment by creating sustainable jobs for the citizens of the State as well as others;

xvii.To Draw the attention of the State Government to the directives from the Office of the Vice President that States should set up committees to engage with youths, others on employment, social security networks, inquiry into the abuses of the defunct SARS and national unity, and as a result the Roundtable Calls on the Government of Cross River State to act speedily in that regard. And in so doing, the participants demand that such a committee be inclusive of young women and men from different parts the State and Civil Society Organisations working in the area of Human Rights/Dignity, officials of the Judiciary and relevant ministry/department/agencies;

xviii. To Call on the State Government to work with the National Youth Council Cross River State branch as well as eighteen civil society organisations working on youth development to organize Youth Conferences/Summit at the Ward, Local Government and State Level with a view to allowing coordinated expression of the genuine desires of responsible youths and setting the agenda for the sustainable development of the growing youth population of the state

xix. To call on Civil Society Organization and Private Sector Organizations to develop and implement an effective frame work for independent Citizens Monitoring and Evaluation of programs of Governments at all levels as well as the performance of the security agencies especially as it relates to their compliance with the above stated demands.

CONCLUSION

Participants at the Roundtable expressed their delight for the convening of the Roundtable and appreciated the hosting organizations(Cross River State Civil Society Network and the African Dignity Foundation) for deploying their scarce resources to make the event a success, they also expressed appreciation to the Citizens Solution Network, who posed the initial challenge to leaders and members of other civil society organizations to ensure their voices are heard on the disturbing recent events affecting the peace, security, human right protection and development in the state. They stated their resolve to proactively engage other stakeholders using the points meticulously canvassed herein.

Finally, with the understanding that issues highlighted will provides a social compass for peace, security, human right protection and development going forward, participants  demand that negotiations for the implementation of suggested actions herein will take into account timelines, contingency clauses, clear mandate of who will do what and at what level as well as a demand that the 2021 budget of the state is reflective of the outcomes of the resulting engagement before it is being passed by the state house of assembly.

In Faith whereof, the convener/chair and secretary of the roundtable for and on behalf of themselves other Participants and the under listed Civil Society Organizations in Cross River State committed to Peace, Security, Human Right Protection and Development of the state hereby endorse this Communique/Position Paper.

Dated in Calabar 3rd of November,2020

Name: Leader Ben Usang

(Convener/Chairman)

Signature:

Name: Jonah Okpa

(Secretary, Communique/Position paper committee)

Signature:

Names of Participants

1.Leader Ben Usang

2. Jonah Okpa

3.Solomon Ndem

4.Francis Esuk

5. Henry Ojong

6.Regina Ewa

7.Blessing IKPEME

8. Raphael Antigha

9. Shabaan Abdullahi

10. Michael Essien Okon

11.Cletus Bassey

12. Bernard Enyia

13. Hon.Bassey Ibor

14. Glory Ene

Names of CSOs that Endorsed the Communique/Position Paper

1. Cross River State Civil Society Network

2. African Dignity Foundation

3. Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All, Cross River State Chapter.

4. Cross River Association for Volunteer Effort

5. Organisation for Rural and Community Development(RUCODEV)

6.Human Support Services

Other Organisations interested in Endorsing the Communique and added to the list should reach out to us here before the document is printed and sent to relevant stakeholhorders.