Abuja – The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has urged the Federal Government to ensure that the Inter-ministerial Committee on International Treaties was functional.
This is contained in the 2015 Nigeria Country Report on Compliance with African Union Instrument presented to the public by CISLAC in Abuja on Thursday.
Programme Officer of CISLAC, Mr Okeke Anya, who presented the report, said that it was the outcome of a research carried out by the organisation.
According to him, the report identified the need to narrow the gap between policy and implementation.
“It is imperative the inter-ministerial committee on International Treaties be made fully functional and the outcome of engagement be placed in the public domain,’’ Anya said.
He said that the study made exhaustive recommendations on all the issues examined and categorised them for easy and quick actions by the government.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the report recommended that government and civil society organisations should highlight synergy needed to improve Nigeria’s compliance with provisions of African Union’s legal instrument and policy framework.
“It is also expected that this administration under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari will pay attention to it in due course,’’ the report said.
It said that the expected policy outcome would improve the living conditions of Nigerians, provide good governance as well as ensure sustainable development.
The report observed that members of National Assembly exhibited low awareness level of the provisions of most of the AU legal instruments and policy frameworks.
The study also found out that most issues of the AU instruments and policy fell under the concurrent list of the 1999 Constitution in which the Federal and State Governments could exercise policy actions and joint implementations.
The report therefore urged the authorities to take urgent action in ensuring the implementation of these frameworks.
It, however, acknowledged that a lot of issues, including agriculture, transformation, and food security were being addressed by the government.
On the Nigerian child, the report noted that they had remained endangered, with 10 states in the federation yet to domesticate the Child Rights Act. (NAN)