The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (SR) held a meeting in Abuja on 25th February 2014 to review the State of the Nigerian Nation. The SR comprising more than Sixty Nigerian Civil Society groups reached the following decisions:
NIGERIA’S MISSING 20BILLION DOLLARS
SR calls on the National Assembly to convene an independent Judicial Commission of inquiry to investigate allegations that 20billion has been stolen from public revenues at the NNPC. Situation room notes that 20billion dollars would make a huge and significant difference to the lives and living conditions of the ordinary Nigerian and significant impact on collapsed infrastructure, generate millions of new jobs, and revive industries and indeed address several problems confronting the country.
The levity with which President Jonathan has handled this collossal and high level of corruption, questions his presidency and raises concern about his ability to govern. SR calls on President Jonathan to immediately sack the Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison Madueke, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the GMD NNPC, Andrew Yakubu, and other officials connected to this scandal.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE 2015 GENERAL ELECTIONS
SR is concerned about preparations for the 2015 elections. While we note INEC’s statement of being adequately prepared for the next election, we are concerned that there are several gaps in the election preparations. SR is worried that a lot of work is still required to achieve an acceptable and credible voters register. SR calls on INEC to provide adequate information to the pubic on work done to achieve a permanent voters card and have this distributed across all of the States of the federation before voting in 2015 and the governorship elections taking place in Ekiti and Osun States this year.
SECURITY SITUATION IN THE NORTH EAST
SR is also worried about the security situation across the country particularly in the North East region of the Country. Inspite of assurances by President Jonathan and officials of his government on a daily basis the country receives damning report of bombings and other atrocities perpetrated against Nigerian citizens in the North East.
SR is worried that the government has not shown sufficient ability or competence to tackle the menace of security in the north- east and even across the rest of the Country. No doubt this situation in the North-East is a critical factor in the voting in the 2015 elections. A situation where about one-sixth of the country’s citizen are under threat of not participating in the 2015 elections raises serious concern about the legitimacy of the next elections.
SR calls on President Jonathan to disclose what concrete efforts are being made to address the challenge of security in the North-East, and the fear of Nigerians that the fight against terrorism has become another conduit for syphoning public funds without delivering on the promise of tackling security in the country.