{"id":42397,"date":"2021-11-19T07:25:52","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T15:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=42397"},"modified":"2021-11-19T10:26:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T18:26:15","slug":"secretary-antony-j-blinken-at-a-discussion-with-civil-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=42397","title":{"rendered":"Secretary Antony J. Blinken At A Discussion with Civil Society"},"content":{"rendered":"
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11\/19\/2021 08:34 AM EST<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State<\/p>\n

Abuja, Nigeria<\/p>\n

U.S. Embassy Abuja<\/p>\n

SECRETARY BLINKEN:\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>Thank you.\u00a0 Well, again, thank you.\u00a0 Thank you to each and every one of you for joining us today.\u00a0 And I really want to say a special thanks to Reverend Hayab for making the journey from Kaduna all the way here.\u00a0 Greatly appreciate it.<\/p>\n

I also met with civil society activists in Kenya, just a couple of days ago.\u00a0 And I really wanted an opportunity to get together with all of you and to hear from you, listen to you, and I hope learn from you because to make progress on the issues that matter most, we just can\u2019t be engaged with government, and government can\u2019t do it alone.\u00a0 Community groups, faith groups, human rights defenders, journalists, others, are a critical part of the equation and essential to the progress that we all want to see made.<\/p>\n

So as I said, I really want to listen to each and every one of you.\u00a0 Just very quickly, before we get into a conversation, a couple of things that I wanted to put before you that are front and center on my mind.<\/p>\n

First, freedom of expression, access to information, are key to democracy.\u00a0 We all know that.\u00a0 And a lot takes place online and on our social media.\u00a0 But across the region and around the world, in the United States, we know how these forums can also be used to spread misinformation, hate, and even incite violence.<\/p>\n

So one of the things I\u2019m most keen to hear from you about is how you see government and how you see the private sector, how you see citizens in our democracies getting the right balance between a vibrant, open discourse that\u2019s so essential, but also preventing that discourse from being used to inflict harm.<\/p>\n

The second thing that I\u2019m thinking about \u2013 I\u2019m thinking about is some of you were very deeply engaged with the electoral and constitutional reforms that have passed here in Nigeria, including those below the age at which Nigerians can run for office.\u00a0 When it comes to keeping our democracies healthy and vibrant, we know how important it is to actually keep young people engaged and make them feel that the system is theirs to shape, and that it\u2019s actually responsive to what they care about, to their futures, to their aspirations.<\/p>\n

And so I\u2019d be eager to hear from each of you whether or not that is in fact the case, and if it\u2019s not, of what you think we can do to strengthen that connection between young people, rising generations, and our democracies.<\/p>\n

The third thing is this:\u00a0 We saw the conclusion this week of the independent Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry\u2019s work and the transmission of its final report.\u00a0 And this is clearly an important step toward accountability for the killings and other abuses alleged to have been committed by security forces during the \u201cEnd SARS\u201d protests, a year ago.\u00a0 So we\u2019re very much looking forward to the federal government and the Lagos state government and other state governments taking measures to address the alleged abuses, as well as the grievances of victims and their families.\u00a0 Reports are critical, but what counts as much and even more is whether there\u2019s action that follows those reports.\u00a0 I\u2019d be very interested in getting your perspectives on that.<\/p>\n

Finally, I really just want to recognize the role that many of you played, particularly the faith leaders who are here, in defusing tensions that can result in communal violence.\u00a0 This is an extraordinarily diverse country when it comes to faith and religion.\u00a0 So many different views in one country.\u00a0 And that\u2019s a very wonderful and powerful thing.\u00a0 But of course, it also comes with challenges and the potential for tensions and violence.\u00a0 And I very much appreciate the role that you play in making sure that that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen that the trust that you\u2019ve earned from communities can make all the difference in preserving peace, and your leadership is one that we hope more will follow, not just in Nigeria but beyond.<\/p>\n

So those are some of the things that were on my mind.\u00a0 Mostly, though, eager to hear from each of you, and to have a conversation.\u00a0 So with that, again, thanks for being here.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11\/19\/2021 08:34 AM EST   Antony...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42398,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42397\/revisions\/42398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}