Public statement  Posté le 15-02-2021 10:33, modifié le 15-02-2021 10:33

In Nigeria, civic space has been limited for several years. The electoral campaign underway for several months, which should offer the first democratic transition between two elected presidents, does not alter this observation. Since 2017, the numerous arrests of civil society actors and journalists as well as the almost systematic ban on peaceful demonstrations have cracked the rule of law. Faced with this situation, TLP has filed an urgent petition with the ECOWAS Court of Justice through its lawyers.

Since the major demonstrations of 2018 against the budget law, any gathering organized by civil society has been systematically banned, despite the fact that the right to demonstrate is enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified on March 7, 1986 by Nigeria, as well as in the Nigerien Constitution of November 25, 2010. In a report published in March 2020, our movement noted 25 bans on demonstrations between January 2018 and December 2019.

On several occasions, it was also meetings in private places that were prevented and this, without legitimate reason.

On August 12, 2017, an order was issued by the city of Niamey prohibiting "all protests and meetings [...] on working days and in the evening throughout the territory of the city of Niamey." The latter was the cause of the ban on many peaceful demonstrations organized by civil society.

While demonstrations are banned for civil society under various pretexts, the most recurrent being "risk of disturbing public order" and "health emergency," some political parties are campaigning throughout the country, including in so-called insecure areas, where they are gathering thousands of people without any respect for the barriers against the Covid-19 pandemic.

These differences in treatment and repeated bans are indicators of the serious narrowing of civic space in Nigeria. Tournons La Page (TLP) recalls that the rights of demonstration and assembly are inalienable. This is why TLP has appealed to the ECOWAS Court of Justice to rule against the repeated bans and liberticidal laws that impede the fundamental freedom to demonstrate and that are likely to have a lasting impact on the socio-political future of Niger.

Maïkoul Zodi, National Coordinator

Email: tlpniger@gmail.com

Tel: +227 90 46 51 56