Samson Itodo
Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Mr Samson Itodo, says civil society organisations (CSOs) have become the most bastardised group in Nigeria.
Itodo, who made the assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja, said some CSOs were state-sponsored, established to promote government’s interests and policies, thereby causing proliferation of the group.
He stated that the roles of CSOs were crucial for streaming civil rules, but noted with concerns that rather than performing such functions, some were doing the bidding of the state.
Itodo said that there were cordial relationships and mutual respect between Yiaga Africa and other CSOs in the country.
“Yiaga Africa is part of different coalitions within the civil society community space, but there are different actors within the civil society.
“We have government civil society; we have state-sponsored civil society and today, one of the most bastardised concepts is the civil society.
“You see barefaced organisations, mushroom organisations who are actually sponsored by political elements with all sorts of names, addressing all sorts of press conferences.
“They have a right, a constitutional right to do so, but they continue to pollute the civil society ecosystem because you see situations where government-sponsored civil society counter another civil society organisation,” he said.
The executive director said in some cases, it could even be troubling to be identified as a civil society actor because there were certain things that such actors do that the credible organisations oppose.
“That does not mean that there are no real organisations or individuals within these organisations who are not compromised and yet, there are people who are clearly partisan.
“As actors in the space, our duty is not to be partisan; our duty is to be objective. When government fails to perform its duty, we clearly state it. We hold government to account.
“When government performs creditably well, we commend them because at the end of the day, everything we do is to bring succour to the common man on the street who doesn’t’t have a voice,” he said.
Itodo called on civil society organisations to rise above sentiments and partisanship, and speak truth to power when the need arises.
“Nigeria today needs people of good conscience that would look at the state in the face and tell it when things are not working and proffer solutions,” he said.
The executive director said that Yiaga Africa was being funded by development partners.
“We don’t take money from politicians; I have said this repeatedly, that as an institution, we don’t take money from politicians and government.
“We are largely funded by development partners, to whom we are eternally grateful for their supports, and we account for the works that we do,’’ he said.(NAN)
