Weekly Update – Friday 23^rd October 2020

This week the Nigerian Army was responsible for an awful massacre of peaceful protesters in Lagos, which has shocked the world. Over the last few weeks a movement against the brutal SARS units has spread into global protests, which the authorities in Nigeria could no longer ignore.

Protesters, often young, have been taking to the streets to call for the disbanding of the SARS units which are responsible for torture, corruption and extrajudicial killings. The response in Nigeria has been an increasingly oppressive crackdown on protesters, which culminated in the massacre on Tuesday of potentially dozens of peaceful protesters by a Nigerian Army Unit.

The brutal attack was as calculated as it was violent. CCTV cameras and lights were cut while ambulances were denied access to the injured. We should make no mistake; this was an attempt by the Nigerian regime to crush a movement that threatens, even at these early stages, to overturn the existing hierarchy in Nigeria and tear down the corrupt establishment.

While Governments across the world have been quick to condemn the Nigerian regime, the UK Government have been almost entirely silent, except for one muted request that the violence is investigated. That response is a disgrace. Thousands of Nigerian Diaspora call this country their home and they deserve more from their Government. It is our duty, as a country, to call out crimes against humanity whenever we see them and whoever commits them. Even when it is inconvenient to do so.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has failed to do that, which is why I wrote to him this week, along with more than 50 other MPs and Peers calling on him to speak out against the violence and call on President Buhari to stop killing protesters. It’s time we got behind protesters and supported their calls for justice and an end to corruption and violence. If these are goals that our Government really shares, then now is the time to show it.

Free School Meals

On Wednesday, as we continue through a second wave of a pandemic and live through the worst financial crisis in memory, Conservative MPs voted not to continue providing free school meals to the most vulnerable children in this country over the school holidays.

Because of that, in one of the richest countries in the world, over 1.4 million children could go to bed hungry over the school holidays. In Edmonton, almost 5,000 children are eligible for Free School Meals and now face an extremely difficult half term and Christmas period.

Child poverty has risen substantially under this Government as a result of endless cuts and welfare reforms. Having pushed these children into poverty and hunger, the Government now refuses to provide them even with a £15 weekly voucher. Meanwhile the Government will continue to spend far more than the cost of these meals on private contractors who waste public money, failing to perform their basic jobs.

This isn’t about the cost of feeding children, which we can afford to do, its about priorities. Feeding hungry children is simply not a priority for this Government.

Business Grant Support

This week I had the opportunity to ask the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Steven Barclay, to release extra funding for businesses in Edmonton who are faced with a desperate situation as we head into another lockdown. While the Government released some funds earlier in the year to Enfield Council, in the form of Discretionary Support Grants, the money wasn’t enough to reach most businesses that applied for it.

Steven Barclay’s response to my question implied that because the title of the grant had the word ‘discretionary’ in it, this meant that Enfield council could magic money out of thin air and pay every business exactly what they needed. That clearly was not the case. The Government gave the Council a small amount of money which quickly ran out before most businesses were able to benefit from it.

Unless the Government acts now and provides extra funds for small business in Edmonton I fear that permanent damage may be done and that jobs which disappear now could take a long time to come back.

——————————-

Thank you for taking the time to read my latest update, if you have any issues that you would like to raise directly with me then please do email  edmontonconstituency@parliament.uk. I’m always happy to help whenever possible.

Kind regards,

Kate Osamor MP