Dataphyte Foundation in collaboration with Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI) held a Multi-Stakeholder high-level policy dialogue to address the impact of insecurity on Nigeria’s civic space focusing on security measures, democratic freedoms, and digital rights in the country.
The dialogue, which was held in Abuja, brought together representatives from the Dataphyte, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Vision Spring Initiative, Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), Daily Trust, Premium Times, WikiTimes and a host of others.
The founder of Dataphyte, Joshua Olufemi, while giving his opening remarks revealed that Dataphyte reports on Media Reports of Threats to Civic Space Actors and Institutions in Nigeria reveal variances in how the media prioritizes reporting on its own challenges.
He emphasised the need to look at this from a new perspective other than the conventional way, suggesting focus on media coverage on security and digital rights.
“I am going to encourage us not to just report challenges but to formulate solutions on how to resolve the issues. Also, don’t forget that digital rights are also human rights,” he said.
The KDI head of research and strategy, Oluwafemi Adebayo, while presenting his findings claimed that out of 14,779 incidents of insecurity between 2011 till date, 1196 (8.1%) of them were issues affecting civil space in Nigeria.
“The #Endsars protests and its post-protest crackdowns in 2021, coupled with election-relation tensions, triggered record-high civic space restrictions, peaking at 440 cases in 2021.”
Oluwafemi further highlighted the increase in surveillance, restrictions on protests, and the impact of the internet shutdowns on democratic participation.
A panel session moderated by Oluwafemi which comprises panelists like Olufemi; the executive director of Vision Spring Initiative, Ngozi Nwosu; and representative of National Human rights Commission (NHRC) explored how national security policies undermine democratic rights.
Olufemi noted that local government chairman should be the first to receive daily security briefings from the police, not officials in Abuja to ensure a swift and localised response to security challenges.
“In one of the events I attended, Lt colonel didn’t know the Human rights Commission existed and what its mandate is all about”, the representatives of the NHRC bemoaned.
The NHRC representative also disclosed that during the Endsars panel, some police officers didn’t believe a police officer would stand in front of a panel to say what he had done in the office.
She added that a lot needed to be done in terms of synergy between government agencies, the police and the army, civil society, and the media to improve security in the country.
Olufemi further called for community level engagement. According to him “We will need a lot of community level of engagement, which starts from education, access to information and retaining the information for reporting. We need to go more grassroot for the demand and supply of information.”
Dataphyte Foundation program officer, Babatunde Funmilayo, presented the analyses of how the media reports capture threats to civic space actors and institutions. She said physical violence is the most reported issue in coverage by the five newspapers that was analysed.
A fireside chat between Dataphyte Insights lead, Oluseyi Olufemi and media and development expert and the deputy director at CJID, Busola Ajibola was held, where they explored most of the findings from the analyses.