Civic Pulse Nigeria
Quarterly civic space report
Q3 2021
July to September 2021
Complete quarter. Generated 19 Sept 2026.
- Published records
- 3
- Change on Q2 2021
- Level
- States named
- 1
- Reporting organisations
- 3
3 civic space records were published for July to September 2021, against 3 in April to June 2021. Legal and Regulatory Framework was the most frequently recorded category. 2 of these came from reports written at national level that name no state.
Records by category
- Legal & Regulatory2
- Arrests & Detention1
- Citizen Engagement0
- Government Discourse0
- Resource Access0
- Harassment0
Where records were located
- Federal Capital Territory1
Plus 2 national-level records naming no state.
Who reported these incidents
- Rights monitors
- 1
- News outlets
- 2
- Official and court records
- 0
- Amnesty International Canada1
- The News1
- ThisDay1
The records
- 19 Jul 2021·National·CPN-0094
SERAP threatens to sue federal government over gag order on reporting of terrorist attacks
The National Broadcasting Commission directed radio and television stations not to give details of the activities of terrorists, bandits and kidnappers in their newspaper reviews. SERAP wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari urging him to have the directive withdrawn and threatened legal action; the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria described it as a ploy to suppress press freedom.
- 13 Jul 2021·National·CPN-0095
Controversial media act amendment bills
In June 2021 the chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Information, Olusegun Odebunmi, sponsored bills amending the National Broadcasting Commission Act and the Nigerian Press Council Act. The NBC bill would extend the Commission's regulatory authority to all online media; the NPC bill would let the President appoint the council's chair and board. The Nigerian Guild of Editors called the bills anti-free press. They were suspended on 13 July 2021 after public outcry.
- 4 Jul 2021·Federal Capital Territory·CPN-0096
Nigeria: activists jailed for anti-president T-shirts freed
Activists Larry Emmanuel, Anene Victor Udoka, Samuel Gabriel, Henry Nwodo and Ben Mannaseh were arrested on 4 July 2021 at the Dunamis International Gospel Centre in Abuja for wearing #BuhariMustGo T-shirts. Amnesty International campaigned for their release and they were later freed.
- Amnesty International Canada: https://amnesty.ca/features/outcome-nigeria-activists-jailed-for-anti-president-t-shirts-freed/
How this report was compiled
Every record in this report is compiled by hand from reports published by named rights monitors, news outlets and official bodies, and links to the source it draws on. Each record is dated to the incident where its source gives that date, and otherwise to the date the source was published. The figures show what has been recorded, not the full extent of what has happened: incidents that were never reported do not appear, and a state with few records is not necessarily a state where little took place.