Akwa Ibom Deputy Speaker Assures Legislative Support for Civic Space Strengthening
By Ekemini Simon
The Deputy Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Rt Hon. KufreAbasi Edidem has assured that he is determined to partner with the Community of Practice on Civic Space Strengthening to provide legislative support in strengthening the regulatory environment for sustainable Civil Society Organisations operations at the sub-national level.
The Deputy Speaker gave the assurance on Wednesday when the team of Community of Practice on Civic Space Strengthening in Akwa Ibom State paid him a courtesy in his office.
The Team Lead, Tijah Bolton-Akpan had said that over the years, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have had to grapple with multiple regulatory compliance and some attempt at repressive laws which has affected the effectiveness of their work.
He noted that rather than direct their energy at interventions within the civic space, the multiplicity of these regulatory obligations have made CSOs dedicate more time on filings for compliance thus making the real work suffer.
While applauding the government of Akwa Ibom State for the fair ground of operations given to CSOs, Bolton-Akpan noted that within the State, the Civil Society working in various thematic areas are still required to register with each of the relevant ministries.
He noted that already CSOs have been carrying out self-regulation with a plan for State ranking dashboard as a policy tool which will monitor and incentivize improvements in the state’s civic space.
The Team Lead who pointed out that the CSOs are not against regulation called for a harmonised regulatory process which will streamline requirements in the State into a single portal under one agency to reduce bureaucratic bottleneck.
In response, the Deputy Speaker, Rt Hon KufreAbasi Edidem commended the CSOs in Akwa Ibom State for the interventions often made.
” The importance of the CSOs and the Media in a democracy cannot be overemphasized. When we carry out oversight on other arms of the government, it is the CSOs and the Media that should look at us and other arms to give necessary observations for improved services. I agree that regulation is very important but if you need to work well, you don’t need too many distractions in regulatory compliance”, he said.
The Deputy Speaker who noted that he is delighted that the request for harmonized regulation is coming from the Community of Practice thus dispelling fear of an attempt at clampdown on the Civic space said he is ready to work with the team on the harmonized regulation for civil space strengthening.