UN wades into #EndSARS crisis

By Rotimi Fadeyi & Tunde Opalana

Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) and former Nigerian minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed on Monday said that the country’s government needs to address the issues raised by #EndSARS protesters who demanded for an end to police brutality and extra-judicial killings.

Muhammed, who spoke with State House Correspondents at the Presidential Villa, stated that it was the right of citizens to demonstrate peacefully for those issues they want to raise with their government, stressing that the UN was disturbed by loss of lives and property.

Speaking specifically on the #EndSARS protests, she said: “we did raise while we were with Mr. President the issue around the recent challenges of #EndSARS protests that happened in the country.

It was of course one that the Secretary General, we all alarmed and of course support the country in trying to get back on track.

“Young people and their demands for social justice, governance are all legitimate ones and must be done peacefully.

But we were all disturbed by the damage level, loss of lives and we continue to condole with those families who suffer those loses.

“Today was one in which we encourage efforts that are being made by government to that the process of engaging with the demands that have been made by the young people.

It’s a start on that journey of reforms that are needed in the security sector but also root causes to the issues that are happening today, which is about investing in development.

“We look forward to continuing our partnership with the government of Nigeria.

We are happy today to launch the UN Plus Offer, which has to do again with supporting economic sustainability plan over the next two years so that we can respond a little bit better.”

On the Lekki shooting, Mohammed said: “The UN stance is clear. Like the UN Secretary General had said in his speech, we believe everyone has a right to demonstrate peacefully for those issues they want to raise with their government.

“There is a social contract in place between the government and the people and it is important to have that freedom of speech provided it is done peacefully.

“I think in the case where we heard that lives and property were lost, it was unfortunate and we believe that in addressing the demands that were made by young people, that intact this is perhaps this is a lesson we can take into the future and how we engage in such issues.

“I have to say that there are lot of protests around this world that has been exacerbated by COVID because, COVID has left people out of work, left people hopeless because of the socioeconomic impact.

And in many of those protests, we have not seen governments turn around in response as quickly as this government did.

“So, the UN response to this is that, we must make sure that what happened in this protests were are able to address those issues, those gaps and begin the reform, in fact I will say the transformations that are needed to address many of these outstanding issues and for that we need to engage youths, we need to engage government.

“I think what has been put in place are those building blocs and the support of the UN has been asked to make sure that those convenience can happen.

And that we can build back trust and have confidence building measures in order to get to where we need to where the social contract between government and the people is firm and trust worthy and is working for the benefits of the Nigerian people.”

However, the Senate has denied knowledge of the freezing of accounts of leaders of the #EndSARS protesters by agents of the state.

The upper chamber also said that it is unaware of the recent arrest and imprisonment of six persons over allegations of sponsoring the terror group, Boko Haram.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and legal matters, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele made the disclosure on Monday at the budget defence of the Ministry of Justice.

He said members of the committee learnt through the media that bank accounts of some youth leaders were reportedly frozen by the federal government over their involvement in the recent EndSars protests.

“We read it in the news like everyone of us. Our committee is also interested in knowing what is going on in this regard.

As it is our committee is neither in a position to either explain or defend.”

He said that the legislature will liaise with the executive to know what is going on. “We will reach out to the executive.

And if it is true what the stakeholders in charge are trying to achieve with this”, he said.

While examining the 2021 appropriation details of the ministry, the committee took up the Justice minister Abubakar Malami up on money earmarked for prosecution of Boko Haram suspects by the ministry.

“Under overhead cost, you presented that the sum of N2 billion will be used to pay for the ministry’s legal services.

And the legal services are listed to be civil litigation, prison decongestion, trial and prosecution of Boko Haram, administration of criminal justice system and payment for international legal obligations.

“My observation is that is proposing N2 billion and above for just legal services is not definitive enough, clear enough to avail auditors at the committee for the purpose of exercising our oversight functions.

We need to know how much is being projected for civil litigation, for prison congestion and all other items in that regard. Responding, Malami said “on the proposed N2 billion for the ministry’s legal services, we have stated that it will be used for civil litigation.

“Since 2015, the office of the AGF has been doing almost all the cases inside without going out for external solicitors.

We are also trying to reduce to the barest minimum the amount spent on civil litigations. If we are looking at the N2 billion, it cannot be compared with what it is now saving from government.

“Presently, the last performance we had, we saved over N600 billion because we now do cases in-house. So, part of this zn2 billion is essentially to get the lawyers…because all the cases are spread among the 36 states.

“The trial and prosecution of Boko Haram: you will recall that last year, we had to create a jurisdiction, a division in Kanji Dam in which 3000 inmates were prosecuted.

How do you prosecute 3000 inmates in a place? We had to bring four judges from the federal high court, and pay the legal aides.

“When we look at the N2billion, it’s a tip of the ice berg of what it intends to do. Presently, there is a camp in Maiduguri which we are going for another prosecution.

This is what the N2 billion is going to do. So, there is no overlapping. When you now look at the specific activities of the N2 billion, they are separate and distinct from what you think”.

The Chairman of the committee disclosed that the upper legislative Chamber is working with the relevant committee of the House Of Representatives on the amount earmarked for the prosecution of Boko Haram suspects.

“These are some of the issues before us as a committee.

It’s not just the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, the House Committee on Justice is also working with us on this matter.

He stressed that the Senate Committee will scrutinize the 2021 budget of the judiciary so as to “get justification for what they are proposing for 2021 even to the last kobo.”

He assured of the committee’s readiness to ensure that that all that has spent is accounted for and that the resources are well identified.

Meanwhile, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan on Monday raised the alarm that another nationwide protest is imminent should government fail to address the growing unemployment among the large youthful population.

He charged the Federal Government to harness every available resources in the agricultural sector of the economy to generate employment opportunities for the youths as well as opening up of the economy to create enabling environment for entrepreneur to thrive.

The Senate president solicited that the 2021 budget being processed by the National Assembly should be mindful of youth unemployment in the country.

Lawan spoke in Abuja against the backdrop of the recent #EndSARS protests in the country, at a public hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Agriculture on 2021 budget defense.

He said “recently we had some of our youths protesting. Some of them very genuinely.

They were seeking the attention of leaders and they got the attention of leaders. “So our budget, especially for 2021, should be mindful of what we do to provide employment opportunities for these youths.

“They demonstrated. They protested because they could do so.

There are so many other people who may not be youthful but are also in the same need and they didn’t protest.

“Let’s meet them where they are. We don’t have to wait until they also try to grumble or protest. We should be proactive.

We should reach them and they are in the rural areas. Most of them. “So we should meet them there.

Give them what we can and what they need to some extent, within the purview of our resources and give them there, to make them live a productive life and that is the only way we can make a difference in the lives of the people,” Lawan said.

The Senate President said, with practical and radical approach, agriculture sector would change Nigeria’s fortune.

“This sector(Agriculture), without prejudice to any other sector, is enough to turn around the fortune of Nigeria, something that the oil has not been able to do.

“But why have we not been able to do so? We need to be very practical and radical. I believe that the way we go will not take us to the El Dorado. But there is every potential, every possibility and there are so many experts here.

“Oil cannot give jobs to the youths. Only few people. Mostly white collar jobs. But we know that this sector(Agriculture), from the President, to the last man or woman in the country, and it has all the potentials to create the wealth that we need to have a fairly and meaningful life for everyone.

“So we need to apply ourselves fully to operating this sector.

Government alone cannot make it happen. Government can come up with the necessary and desired policies but those that will make it happen are the private sector,” Lawan said.

The Senate President described the agriculture sector as the “mother of all sectors” in the Nigerian economy and urged all stakeholders at all levels of government to accord it more attention.

“I still believe that we need to do better for this sector because to do better for the Agriculture sector is to do better for Nigerians and what can be better for a government than to do better for its citizens.

“I believe that this sector is the mother of all sectors in our economy. We have the potentials across the country to grow anything.

“Is it not time that we start to think of maybe one crop per Local Government Area or something like that because this idea was mooted before.

READ ALSO: FG puts #EndSARS promoters under surveillance, freezes accounts

“Do we need to be talking of Agriculture only at the Federal level. Where are the states.

Where are the local governments because we don’t have land.

The states and the Local Governments have the land and the people. So we need to come up with better strategies of engaging everybody, every stakeholders,” Lawan said.