….Some NGOs collected funds for North East IDPs and disappeared …Churches, Mosques, Esusu, Market Women Associations not affected.
The House of Representatives has said Religious bodies and organisations are not among the Non Governmental Organisation which will soon be regulated.
The House also said quasi-financial institutions at local levels are also not NGO, as these organisations have existed for centuries to serve businesses and commerce of market women and traders.
In a statement issued on Friday by Hon. Umar Buba Jibril, deputy majority leader, House of Representatives, the affected NGOs and Civil Society Organizations (CSO) are voluntary organisations that are registered to partner Government at all levels to fill gaps wherever they exist.
He said these NGOs and CSOs are supposed to be partners in progress with the Government and so there is need for a commission to serve this purpose.
Jibril explained that in order for the organizations to carry out their activities, they solicit for funds from all over the World and collect billions of naira on behalf of Nigerians, which needs to be monitored.
He said: “They recruit expatriates to help them run their activities in the country with lots of abuses. Etc etc however, recent developments have shown that some people registered NGOs, solicited for funds and disappeared.
“That happened recently in the North East. Some NGOs are used to fund the activities of terrorist and insurgents.”
He said the NGOs bill is primarily to set up a commission to regulate their activities and provide a platform for robust relationships between them and the government for the interests of Nigerians.
“In addition it is to ensure transparency and accountability in the ways and manners the NGOs collect moneys and use them for Nigerians,” Jibril said in the statement.
“The NGOs bill is not new or peculiar to Nigeria. It exists in many countries particularly in the ECOWAS sub- region and all over Africa and other continents.
“In Europe, Israel passed theirs last year. Kenya has a similar law since 1990. Nigeria is and should not be a banana republic where anything goes.”
The House of Reps lambasted SERAP for the “way it reacted to the bill proposition.”
Jibrill said: “Finally, the way the NGOs are reacting to this wonderful and well packaged bill particularly SERAP is not only shameful but condemnable. The Nigerian parliament is an institution governed by rules and traditions.
“When a bill is for public hearing you go there and present your views like other interested Nigerians and invited cooperate bodies and government agencies for the standing committee to do justice to the bill.
“Going on cheap propaganda and blackmail and even calling on World bodies including the United Nation to help you withdraw a bill from our National Assembly will not help you.”
