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The International Press Centre, Lagos-Nigeria condemns the recent invasion of Abia state NUJ secretariat by Nigerian soldiers of Operation Python Dance on Tuesday 12th of September, 2017. According to media report, “the military personnel reportedly beat up journalists at sight and destroyed their working tools, furniture, documents and other property yet to be quantified.” The Director of IPC, Mr. Lanre Arogundade in a statement described the unprovoked attack as shameful and a clampdown on democracy as the list of attacked journalists recently seems to grow daily with the worrisome trend becoming more condemnable. “If the military wants to exercise its authority and strength it should be channeled into assisting the media to make progress in a democratic era and not victimizing the media professionals,” Arogundade said. IPC therefore calls on the Chief of Defense Staff and Chief of Army Staff to thoroughly probe the incident so that all the personnel involved would be made to face the law. While this is being done, Mr. Arogundade said the military authorities should take immediate steps to replace all damaged equipment in the Abia State NUJ secretariat. SGD: Melody Akinjiyan Program Assistant/Safety Desk Officer IPC melodyakinjiyan@ipcng.org +2348162206470

Communiqué of the Stakeholders’ Post-Election Forum on Lagos State Local Government Election Held on Thursday August 10, 2017 at All Seasons Conference Centre, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos. COMMUNIQUÉ Introduction The International Press Centre (IPC) held a one-day Stakeholders’ Post-Election Forum on the recent Lagos State Local Government Election on Thursday, August 10, 2017 at the main hall of All Seasons Conference Centre, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos State. The event was organized in furtherance of series of citizens engagement programmes for community members from eighteen (18) communities across six (6) Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Lagos State, namely, Amuwo Odofin, Surulere, Shomolu, Ikorodu, Lagos Mainland and Ifako-Ijaiye under the Strengthening Citizens Engagement in Electoral Process (SCEEP) project, being implemented in Lagos by IPC and supported by ACTIONAID Nigeria and the UKAID through the Department for International Development (DFID). Over 120 participants drawn from the communities as well as representatives of institutional stakeholders including the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the National Conscience Party (NCP), KOWA and ACCORD parties, election monitors/key CSO stakeholders, youth, women and People Living with Disabilities (PWDs) and the media attended the forum. Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan, Special Adviser to Lagos Governor on Communities & Communications was special guest of honour while Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, the Chair, Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), delivered the lead presentation on the theme, “Post analysis of Lagos State LG elections: Appraisal of stakeholders’ involvement- the issues, gaps and prospects for improvement”. Objective The objective of the forum was to assess stakeholders’ contribution towards the elections, identify the gaps and learn from the issues in order to have improvement in future elections. Messages, remarks & presentations The event was moderated by Mrs. Bridget Osakwe, Coordinator of West African Network of Peace Building (WANEP) and received goodwill messages from Mr. John Emah, representing Mr. Waheed Ishola, Director of Lagos State National Orientation Agency (NOA); Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan, Special Adviser to Lagos Governor on Communities & Communications; SCEEP partners from Imo, Akwa Ibom, Kano and Kaduna States and representatives of three political parties – KOWA, NCP and ACCORD. In her paper, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, who is also the Executive Director of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Center (WARDC) gave an overview of the outcome of the monitoring of the elections. She said while it was good that the election was held there were issues with the legal framework, the conduct of the primaries, low participation, etc. Dr. Adewale Aderemi, Senior lecturer, Department of Political Science, Lagos State University (LASU) contributed to the presentation under the sub-theme, “Post analysis of the Lagos 2017 local government elections: Issues arising and way forward in advancing stakeholders role in deepening the electoral processes” and said the observations by Dr. Akiyode-Afolabi were worth addressing. Observations Following the remarks and presentations, participants during the plenary observed as follows: The local government is plays important role in a democracy as it is the tier of government closest to the grassroots but it is worrisome that attempts are being made to render local councils ineffectual There is the need to get democracy right at the local government level as only then can we get it right at the state and federal levels. There was evidence of lack of internal party democracy across some of the political parties as candidates were imposed in most cases which snowballed into violence during the party primaries. There was evident of citizens’ and voters’ apathy during the July 22 Lagos State local government elections such that the turnout of voters was very low. The citizenry have individual and collective stakes to make elections credible in Nigeria; election should not be seen as the business of government alone but that of everyone. Democracy will only work better if citizens take interest in and not to be nonchalant because being nonchalant, the citizens are disenfranchised and thus give room for politicians to legitimize what is illegitimate. Media reportage of the Lagos State local government elections was skewed in favour of the ruling political party to the detriment of other parties. Opposition political parties did not deploy sufficient formidable campaign strategies to counter the influence of the ruling party ahead of the elections.  Recommendations/Resolutions Arising from the observations, participants recommended as follows: The State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) should be made more independent, particularly in their financing, in order for them to be able to prepare adequately for local elections and obtain the level of trust people have in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Citizens’ stakeholder groups should insist on internal party democracy; at the minimum, parties should present candidates through consensus. Community development associations and committees should sensitize their members on the need to participate in the political process and not disenfranchise themselves. Persons living with disabilities should be taken into consideration in elections and their various needs addressed by the electoral commission. Sensitizations and voter education should also be sustained to address voter apathy and get citizens and voters to participate more in the electoral processes. Civil society organizations and related stakeholders should step up and increase interactions with more grassroots communities to reduce citizens and voters apathy. Communities in Lagos State should familiarize themselves with structures put in place by the state government to address grassroots developmental issues and make use of them Conclusion Participants at the Stakeholders’ Post-Election Forum on Lagos State Local Government Elections expressed gratitude to IPC and its partners; ACTIONAID and UKAID through the Department for International Development (DFID) for supporting the organization of the forum. Signed: Lanre Arogundade Director, International Press Centre (IPC)  Lanre Arogundade Director Tel: +234 (0) 8023186845 , +234 (0) 8067144874 Email: larogundade@ipcng.org, larogundade@gmail.com Twitter: @lanreipc l Skype: lanre.arogundade2 International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos, Nigeria IPC is Nigeria’s foremost media capacity development organization. www.ipcng.org  l  www.twitter.com/IPCng  l www.facebook.com/ipc.nigeria  l  www.youtube.com/ipcng  l  Google+ : Ipc Ng

AFEX members call for internet shutdowns in Africa to stop African media rights organisations have called for internet access to be recognised as a human right and for African governments to stop shutting off the internet when it suits them and cutting off freedom of information to citizens. There have been 16 recorded internet shutdowns in Africa in the first half of 2016. AFEX members in Grahamstown, South Africa The African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX) held its 4th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Grahamstown, South Africa, recently. The AGM was preceded by a two-day capacity building training workshop on Digital Rights Advocacy for AFEX member organisations, as a follow up to a similar workshop held in Accra, Ghana, in January 2016, for African freedom of expression and media rights organisations. The two-day capacity building training was held on the sidelines of the 20th edition of the Highway Africa Conference, organised by the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University in South Africa with the theme: ‘The Internet and the Media – Celebrations, Reflections and the Future’. The Highway Africa Conference is the largest annual gathering of African journalists in the world. The objective of the AFEX workshop was to build the capacity of African freedom of expression and media rights organisations to enable them to more effectively promote and defend freedom of expression and human rights on the continent, especially in the online and digital environments. The training was motivated by the need for the AFEX network to increase its engagement in digital rights advocacy in Africa amidst increasing incidents of internet or social media shutdowns;  continuing attacks on journalists online and offline, accompanied by impunity for such crimes against journalists and other human rights defenders; as well as the need to safeguard of freedom of expression in Africa as a necessary corollary to democratic consolidation. As part of its participation in the Highway Africa Conference, AFEX presented two sessions, the first being a panel discussion on the topic: ‘Confronting the Media Sustainability Challenge in Africa’ at a parallel workshop on the first day of the conference. The second was another panel discussion at a plenary session on the second and final day titled ‘Hands Off Our Internet: Internet Regulation and Journalism in Africa’. AFEX resolutions AFEX member organisations in attendance at the AGM and the training, observed that internet shutdowns have become a common and regular instrument adopted by several African governments to stifle free speech during important national events, particularly elections. They cited the findings contained in a report issued by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), a leading centre for research on ICT policies in Africa. The report indicated that there have been 16 recorded incidents of internet shutdowns during the first half of 2016 (January to June). AFEX members described the trend as very worrying. In particular, they cited some of the latest examples of such incidents as taking place in Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Congo Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Tunisia, Mali, with the latest being Gabon. AFEX members added that these countries have shut down the internet during general elections, protests or other national events and that in all these incidents, the free expression rights of citizens have been violated as they are deprived of the right of access to information, in addition to interference with other human rights. AFEX members endorsed efforts by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye, to get State actors and the private sector to work closely together to ensure the existence of a free and open internet. Internet access as a human right However, they expressed concern that access to the internet has yet to be officially recognised by the United Nations as a human right, despite resolutions by UN bodies guaranteeing freedom of expression, the right to privacy and other human rights online. AFEX Members therefore called on the UN to expedite processes at the level of its General Assembly to formally pronounce internet access a human right given its centrality to the exercise and enjoyment of human rights online as well as to development. They commended UNESCO for proclaiming September 28 of every year as the “International Day for Universal Access to Information”, noting that African leadership, both at the level of governments and civil society, led to the proclamation of the day. AFEX Members called on African governments to take advantage of the first official celebration of the day later this September to guarantee their citizens access to information. They called on countries that are yet to adopt access to information laws to do so as a matter of urgency while those which already have such laws were urged to take measures to ensure their effective implementation. Digital rights The members reaffirmed the commitment of AFEX to Digital Rights and Freedoms as well as the safety of journalists in Africa and resolved to campaign against internet shutdowns across the continent. A new Steering Committee was elected during the General Meeting to lead AFEX over the next two years. Members elected included Edetaen Ojo, executive director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA) in Nigeria, as chairperson of the Steering Committee. Other elected members are: Gilbert Sendugwa of the African Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) in Uganda; Tuver Wundi of Journaliste en Danger (JED) in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Sulemana Braimah of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA). AFEX members also admitted three new members into the network, namely, the International Press Centre (IPC) in Nigeria; the Institute for Media and Society (IMS), also in Nigeria; and the Association for Media Development in South Sudan (AMDISS), based in South Sudan. Other members represented at the AFEX meeting were Human Rights Network for Journalists in Uganda (HRNJ), the Centre for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP), the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). AFEX is a continental network of prominent