By Victoria Onehi
The Civil Society Networks has asked the Federal Government to reverse recent increase in fuel price in the country.
This was part of the Communique issued after their meeting held in Abuja on Friday, on the state of the nation which was organised by the Nigeria International NGO Forum and the Civil Society Networks in Nigeria with the support of the Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC).
The communique reads in part:”On subsidy removal, we are urging the government to reverse recent increase in fuel price and expedite actions in introducing palliative measures and consider the following measures: rehabilitation of refineries, introduce affordable transportation, explore other alternative means of energy,and review workers salary.”
The Chairman of the North East Civil Society Networks Amb.Ahmed Shehu, while presenting the Communique said the Federal Government should include the Civil Society in the Presidential steering committee on palliative so as to represent the interest of the non-working class.
“We call on government at all level to improve on its engagement and sensitisation of citizens before taking major decisions, especially on issues of national importance:- government should leverage on the presence of National Orientation Agency and CSOs networks and its partners in enlightening the citizens to understand its policies and programme, their roles and responsibilities, this will help in ensuring good governance, inclusiveness and effective service delivery.” Shehu explained.
The Civil Society Networks across the country also expressed serious concerns about the state of the nation and scale of insecurity in some part the region ranging from economic hardship, insurgency, kidnapping and youth restiveness that have become too common.
Speaking further on this, CSO Rep-Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), Peter Egwudah, said the natural and human-induced disaster in the country has increased the number of Internally Displaced Persons in the northern part of the country to 2.1 million people.
“People are farmers but right now,if they go to the farm, they are kidnapped. We have alot of Internally Displaced Persons in our communities who cannot continue with their daily activities. That is why there is clamour now to support communities in the north- central,north-west and other parts of the country.
“As it is now, 2.1 million people are displaced in the Northern part of Nigeria either by natural or human- induced disaster such as banditry,insurgency , kidnapping and more. People are displaced accross the country and there is need to reach them with humanitarian aids.” Egwudah said.
The Communique call on the FGN to expeditiously implement the National security Policy and engage with the National Assembly to facilitate the review of existing legal instruments to enhance effective inter-agency collaboration amongst various security agencies.
The CSO networks calls on Federal Government to adopt the National Policy on protection of civilians, as a mark of deliberate action to reducing the likelihood of harm to civilians and civilian infrastructures during all phases of military operations. This they say will not only demonstrate government commitment to protection of civilians and civilian harm mitigation but more importantly it will promote civil military corporation which is crucial towards winning the fight against insurgency, kidnapping and terrorism in the Region.
