Lawyers disagree over NGO bill

While a former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Chidi Odinkalu, said that the bill was flawed right from the first section, another Abuja based lawyer, Dr. Kayode Ajulo, said the bill, if passed into law, would curb and regulate certain excesses. According to Odinkalu: “The bill is flawed from section one sub-section one. “You are proposing to create a new NGO board and voluntary council, all of them as charges on the public purse. We can’t pay our workers and we are creating more boards. Are we okay? “We are in a situation in which people in our essential services cannot draw salaries. We have states that are owing people over 10 months of salaries, 12 months of salaries and we are proposing to create another public body that will be a charge on a country that cannot pay its bills — you want me to keep quiet? Are we serious people? “I chair the governing council of the National Human Rights Commission. We did not have staff to do our programming, we did not have money. “We get a budget of N1.3 billion, N1.25 billion was for overheads and salaries; the rest was to service things related to overheads and salaries, not a dime to do the programming that mattered. Why do we do this to ourselves? So it begins from there.” Odinkalu also pointed out that according to the proposed bill, the NGO regulatory commission would be made up largely of people whose appointments will be approved by the President, with only three representatives from NGOs, an arrangement he said was not balanced. Ajulo noted that the said bill intends to establish an agency to be known as the NGO Regulatory Commission, adding that the body would be saddled with the responsibility of issuing licenses to all NGOs and such licenses are subject to renewal after two years of issuance. If the Commission declines to renew the license of an NGO, such NGO will cease to operate in the country. He added that under the Bill, the NGOs are expected to submit financial reports to the Commission and failure to do so will constitute an offence; the NGOs are further required to comply with all national and foreign policies. A violation of the provisions of the Bill amounts to a term of imprisonment”, he stated. Listing part of the benefits, Ajulo noted that it will cause for accountability to government. “It is important for government to know the financial strength of every NGOs. How funds are sourced, the sources of the funds, what purpose it is used for and must also be audited to avoid corrupt tendencies and block funding of terrorism and civil unrest, ethnic rivalry among others.”]]>