Speeches

Speech by Titus Mann, President of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) at the formal Nationa Launch of the CLO’s Endowment Fund
on August 26, 2004 at the National Institute for International Affairs (NIIA) Victoria Island Lagos.

Mr. Chairman of today’s event and founding president of the Civil Liberties Organisation, Olisa Agbakoba (SAN)

Our Chief Host, His Excellency the Executive Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Our distinguished Key Note Speaker, His Excellency the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State, Alhaji Adamu Abdullahi, who we are happy to note has one of our founding members, Comrade Labaran Maku, as his Deputy.

The Honourable Senate President here represented

The Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives here represented

Representatives of the federal, state and local governments here present

Honourable Senators and federal Representatives here present, including Honourables Abdul Oroh, our former Executive Director, and Uche Onyeagucha, a former member of our national Board

My worthy predecessor, the immediate past president of the CLO, Mrs Ayo Obe

State Assembly members here present

Members of the business community here present

Colleagues, seniors and mentors in the Nigerian civil society movement

Our partners in the international donor and diplomatic communities

Distinguished members of the mass media

Ladies and gentlemen

On behalf of the Board and membership of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) I welcome you with profound gratitude to this landmark event in the life of our great organisation – the formal national launch of the CLO’s N100million Endowment Fund. The significance of today’s event is that from various walks of life and parts of the country we have all gathered to lay the foundation to institutionalize Nigeria’s pioneer human rights organisation and set it firmly on the path of self-sustenance in the consistent pursuit of its mission, which is: “to defend and promote human rights and democracy for a just and equitable society where citizens are conscious of their rights and empowered to defend them.” Your attendance from such diverse backgrounds and places is clearly indicative of the broadly felt need to support and empower independent civil society groups like the CLO to continue to crusade for rights and freedoms, even as our nation grapples with the challenges of transiting from mere civilian rule to democratic civil rule.

It is, however, an abiding irony that notwithstanding the widely acknowledged decisive contributions of the CLO in shaping a positive direction for the Nigerian nation in the last sixteen years, the financial support for its work over the years has come predominantly from foreign donor sources. This has been neither sufficient nor sustainable, besides the tendency to erode independence of thought and action. We believe that since the primary beneficiaries of CLO’s crusade for rights and democratic governance are Nigerians and the Nigerian society, the most natural and enduring source of its sustenance should derive from the Nigerian society itself.

The basic philosophy of the Endowment is therefore to build up a substantial locally sourced financial base that will be managed in such a way as to generate independent income to continuously support the work of the CLO. And our simple strategy for building up the initial fund is to translate the tremendous goodwill, respect and reach which the CLO has earned for itself at various levels in Nigeria into material support. We are thus challenging and appealing to public-spirited individuals, corporate bodies, public officials and agencies in Nigeria that see the need for human rights protection and civilized governance in Nigeria to donate generously towards the establishment of the fund.

This first phase of the endowment drive seeks to raise and invest one hundred million naira. We shall apply the proceeds of from this investment over the next three years to build a permanent national headquarters for the CLO in Lagos and expand our capacity to provide legal aid throughout the country to underprivileged persons whose rights are violated every day, even under the current civilian dispensation. The expansion of our nation-wide legal aid scheme will require the strengthening of our six zonal offices in Kaduna, Maidugiri, Jos, Ibadan, Enugu and Benin and Liaison Office in Abuja. We also intend to involve more public-spirited lawyers in our Legal Assistance Network (LANE) under which we render free legal services to victims of human rights violations throughout the country.

Ladies and gentlemen, a significant aspect of today’s event is the presence of many government functionaries at a CLO event. This is symbolic of the potential which civil rule could provide for meaningful collaboration between governments and their agencies at all levels, civil society organizations like the CLO and the citizenry at large in pursuit of the common good. The potential for cooperative governance may be made all the more attractive by the fact of many members of the civil society movement holding important executive and legislative positions at various levels of government in the current dispensation. For this potential to be actualized, however, there is the need to institute standing mechanisms and frameworks for government-civil society dialogue on important issues of governance. Such mechanisms could lead to collaborative programmes between government and civil society organizations at various levels to deepen popular participation in governance and development. Greater citizens participation could be engendered by putting in place grassroots fora jointly organized by government and credible civil society organizations, especially at the state and local levels, for continuous citizens review of existing government programmes, proffering suggestions for improvement and identifying new priorities for development programming. The CLO will be willing to partner with governments at any level to enlighten and empower the people to seize democratic spaces and translate civil rule into democratic governance.

We thus expect the goodwill demonstrated here today to go beyond donations to our endowment fund and extend to a lasting and genuine partnership to build a new society.

We thank our international partners for their crucial and continuing support. The success of this particular initiative will not, however, diminish the importance of our partnership with them in service of human rights and democracy, which are indeed universal values requiring international cooperation at all times. Rather the success of this initiative together with their support, which we believe we shall continue to enjoy, should enlarge our impact in the striving to entrench human rights and democratic values in Nigeria

To corporate bodies in Nigeria we say: It is profitable to invest in the business of entrenching a culture of human rights and democracy. A culture of arbitrariness, impunity, dictatorship and attendant social instability, such as we recently experienced in this country, clearly does not augur well for the security and profitability of investment. We therefore all have an equal stake and responsibility to ensure that our society never relapses into dictatorship. Towards this end to appeal to all socially responsible corporate organizations to partner with us to build a strong and virile civil society that can be an effective check on the excesses of the state.

To the Nigerian people we say: You are the reason for our struggle, the basis of our existence. Ultimately, our collective liberties and freedoms depend directly on the success our platforms of collective struggle like the CLO. You must, therefore, as individual citizens support this initiative by giving generously, each according to his or her means. In this way we shall be sowing the seed of a new society in which the well being and welfare of everyone shall be the cornerstone of democratic governance.

Long Live the Civil Liberties Organisation!
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!

Titus Mann
President.