By Samuel Oyejola
The Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the Senate, Senator Shehu Sani has reiterated his support for the anti-NGO agitation against the bill proposed by the National Assembly to regulate Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) bills.
He opined that the Non-Governmental Organisations should be allowed for self-regulatory.
The human rights activist turn politician warned that should any regulatory body be set up to oversee the NGOs in the country it would do more harm than good.
Senator Sani stated this at the Young Journalists Forum Youth Dialogue in Abuja on Friday. According to the Senator, “the NGO bill will do more harm to the country than good. The NGOs need to regulate themselves not the government regulating them.”
According to Senator Sani, the bill would be perfect on paper but when it comes to implementation the regulatory body might derail. Sani noted that the body might end up being used by the government to persecute anti government NGOs.
He said that although the motive behind the bill is genuine and innocent which is to distinguish between fake and real NGOs, it remains unnecessary.
While challenging the youth to be proactive in the development of the country he lamented that there is no serious institution in the country focused on developing the youth for leadership.
He also observed that the new generations of youth in Nigeria are concern less about leadership but material gain of the present. “The new generations of youths are not helpful to themselves. Young people are not holding the political leaders accountable,” he said.
“The society”, he said, “must wake up to the fact that if you don’t have who will succeed you, the society would diminish.
Sani lamented that the young people are not helping themselves. He said that the instead of the youth in the country to make the leadership accountable for every policy, they instead dine with the government for personal gains.