Group: Nigeria not yet independent until free from oppression

The Centre for Advancement of Civil Liberties and Development says Nigerians are not yet independent until the citizens are “free from oppression”.

The centre said this in a statement on Friday asking the federal government to reverse the hike in fuel pump price and electricity tariff.

The statement signed by Adebayo Raphael among other co-conveners also said bills such as the anti-hate speech bill and another seeking to regulate social media are worse than the effects of colonialism.

“The obnoxious provisions in the CAMA Act that undermines nongovernmental organizations, and also the entire provisions of the social media bill and hate speech bill, are legislations worse than colonial edicts and laws, and they seek to subjugate rightsholders and put them at mercies of the ruling elites,” it said.

“No truly Independent Democratic nation will seek to impose such laws on its citizens, and believe that the occasion of Nigeria’s Independence anniversary provides an opportunity to the government and the world that Nigerians are Not Yet Independent, until we are free of internal subjugation and oppression.”

The group said its intervention in Nigeria’s current situation through the #NotYetIndependent protest, was to mobilise citizens against the “impunity and nonchalance for the plight of common people that characterizes those policies”.

It said while government should reverse the hike in fuel pump price and electricity tariff, the national assembly should in the same spirit “kill” the hate speech and social media bills.