The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has inaugurated SERAP Accountability Club (SAC) executives in higher institutions with the aim of increasing awareness on the mechanism and procedure for transparency and accountability in schools and communities.
The SAC is part of the Campus Civic Space Campaign of SERAP which is designed to engage the youth population in Nigeria to be involved in transparency and accountability, advocacy for good governance, and strategies for fighting corruption.
Kolawale Oluwadare, the deputy director of SERAP, while speaking at the inauguration shared that “Students of tertiary institutions are the subsets of the youth population. We have other activities that tend to capture other youths. SAC has been engaged on different issues, ranging from PVC advocacy, digital rights and data protection, and other issues that pertain to good governance. They can take up issues within their schools or even outside their school environment.”
Folashade Arigbabu, SERAP Program Officer while inaugurating the executives stated that beyond capacity building for SAC members, SERAP is open to partnering with the executives on any issue, especially by providing legal support to issues when appropriate.
Imoh Eneh, the coordinator of SAC, University of Uyo chapter on the role of the youth, emphasized that “we need to bring in accountability and transparency to governance. It’s not rocket science, it’s something that can be done if all of us are ready to do the right thing at the right time.
Eneh encouraged students across campuses to join the club. “Human rights violations continue in our schools because people don’t speak out. The club will give them a platform to address these many human rights issues that are not attended to on our campuses,” He stated.