National Assembly: CHRAN rejects anti-civil society bill
The Centre for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN) has outrightly rejected the Foreign Aid (Regulation, Coordination, Transparency and Disclosure) Bill, 2026 (SB. 1034), currently before the Senate of the National Assembly.
Speaking on behalf of the organisation, the Director, Otuekong Franklyn Isong, and the Secretary of Research & Documentation, Comrade Etimbuk Ekpenyong, noted with regret that a piece of legislation with such far-reaching implications to gag civil society organisations (CSOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and community-based organisations (CBOs) is being advanced with little regard for its chilling effect on the Nigerian democratic space.
Etim Ekpimah
The Centre for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN) has outrightly rejected the Foreign Aid (Regulation, Coordination, Transparency and Disclosure) Bill, 2026 (SB. 1034), currently before the Senate of the National Assembly.
Speaking on behalf of the organisation, the Director, Otuekong Franklyn Isong, and the Secretary of Research & Documentation, Comrade Etimbuk Ekpenyong, noted with regret that a piece of legislation with such far-reaching implications to gag civil society organisations (CSOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and community-based organisations (CBOs) is being advanced with little regard for its chilling effect on the Nigerian democratic space.
The Bill, sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, representing Gombe North Senatorial District, had its First Reading on 6th May 2026, and scaled Second Reading on 22nd July 2026. The draconian Bill seeks to establish a Foreign Aid Regulatory Commission (FARC) with sweeping powers to register recipients of foreign aid, collect information on foreign funding, monitor compliance, conduct audits and inspections, make regulations, and impose sanctions.
Under the Bill, any entity receiving foreign aid, including CSOs, NGOs, CBOs, private organisations, and government agencies, would be required to register with the proposed Commission within 30 days and disclose the source of funding, implementing partners, and how the funds are utilised. Whilst the Bill is framed as applying broadly to all recipients of foreign assistance, Isong and Ekpenyong highlighted that Nigerian CSOs, NGOs, and CBOs, many of which depend substantially on foreign grants and development assistance to carry out their work, are likely to bear the heaviest burden of the Bill’s provisions.
Of particular concern to CHRAN is Clause 11 of the Bill, which requires foreign-aid-funded projects to align with Nigeria’s national development plans and priorities. Civil society organisations frequently undertake work that, by its very nature, holds the government accountable, including human rights advocacy, election monitoring, anti-corruption campaigns, governance reform, public interest litigation, and oversight of public institutions.
A requirement that such work conform to government-approved development priorities risks compromising the independence that civil society needs to perform these functions credibly.
The Bill also grants the proposed Commission broad powers to demand information, inspect projects, and conduct audits, with limited procedural safeguards to check the exercise of these powers.
CHRAN aligns itself with the growing number of civil society and human rights voices, including a coalition of over 90 civil society groups that has urged the National Assembly to withdraw the Bill, warning that it would accelerate Nigeria’s democratic decline ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The leadership shared the concern that this Bill, alongside similar proposals targeting the media and digital platforms, would hand the executive sweeping powers to monitor, regulate, and potentially shut down civil society organisations, undermining constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression, association, and access to information.
CHRAN holds the firm position that this Bill, if passed into law, would be anti-people and anti-democratic. Genuine transparency in the management of foreign aid is a legitimate objective, and CHRAN supports reasonable, proportionate measures to that end. However, this Bill goes far beyond transparency; it creates the machinery for the state to intimidate and ultimately silence the very organisations that hold it accountable.
The organisation therefore calls on the National Assembly to withdraw the Foreign Aid (Regulation, Coordination, Transparency and Disclosure) Bill, 2026, in its current form, affirming that CHRAN will continue to defend the independence of civil society and the democratic space that Nigerians have fought hard to secure.
