Mr Paul Lambert, the Australian High Commissioner to Nigeria on Monday urged Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the country to project Nigeria in good light and to refrain from criticising government efforts.
Lambert gave the advice in Abuja at a zonal workshop on Strengthening Human Rights Situation in Nigeria through Strategic Engagement of CSOs.
The workshop was organised by the Coalition of Nigerian Human Right Civil Society Organisations on Universal Periodic Review (UPR), managed by Partnership for Justice, a Lagos-based NGO.
The higher commissioner said that the Australia would continue to support CSOs to complement government’s actions toward the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Human Rights, established in 2007 to enable CSOs to advocate and take part in implementation of human rights obligations.
Lambert said: “It’s time to start to promote and tell the story of what is good in Nigeria and to the rest of the world exclusively through processes like the UNPR.
“This is because Nigerians are such good hearted people with the best of humanity and there is so much lessons and values to learn from its people and its government.
“We believe that other countries and communities can learn on how to survive and prosper from Nigerians, because we find their ways of living really interesting.”
Lambert noted that promoting the country would boost its association, affiliation, and collaboration with other countries.
He said that Nigeria remained the heart of Africa and the most popular country in the continent, hence the need for CSOs in the country to project it positively to encourage civil society organisations in other African countries to do same.
“Most countries need to do better across every area and domain to achieve some form of growth and Nigeria is not an exception to that.
“Nigeria has so many problems and issues and so do other countries and community in the world which means no country or community is free of violence and other related issues,” he said.
Lambert advised the CSOs to continue to work for the success of the human rights system in Nigeria.
“The participation of CSOs cannot be over-emphasised in the strengthening of the human rights system.
“The human rights justice system in Nigeria is open to the world and not far from international best practice, but more needs to be heard about it in the international space,” he added.
He applauded the efforts of human rights activists and scholars, saying: “we have observed that in Nigeria not so much abuses are seen or recorded compared with other countries.’’
