By EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO
Delivering Nigeria’s national statement during the General Debate of the 72nd Session of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 72) in New York, the President said this commitment to democratic ideals became profound with Nigeria leading ECOWAS’ effort in the restoration of democratic governance in The Gambia and Cote D’Ivoire.
Hear him: “Our faith in democracy remains firm and unshaken. Our regional organization, ECOWAS, came together to uphold democratic principles in The Gambia – as we had done previously in Cote D’Ivoire,” he said. According to President Buhari, “The frontiers of good governance, democracy including holding free and fair elections, and enthronement of the rule of law are expanding everywhere, especially in Africa.” He also noted that “Through our individual national efforts, state institutions are being strengthened to promote accountability, and to combat corruption and asset recovery,” stressing that “These can only be achieved through the international community cooperating and providing critical assistance and material support.”
But with the greatest respect, there are existential gaps between those statements made at the United Nations by President Buhari and the realities of our times, especially with the issues of respect for the human rights of Nigerians. In fact, the President made his presentation at the United Nations about the same time that empirical evidences were in circulation showing the widespread abuses of human rights committed by armed soldiers who are currently engaged in a highly controversial internal military operations called Operation Python Dance 11 by the Nigeria Army. Video evidences and eye witnesses have it that several unarmed members of the now government’s proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) said to be killed by the armed soldiers even as torture was frequently applied against captured unarmed members of the self-determination group.
Whilst the simultaneous military assaults on civilian population in the South East of Nigeria were going on, the Army unilaterally declared IPOB a terrorist organisation. When the illegality of that declaration became notorious, the Federal Attorney General then hurriedly made an exparte application to the Acting Chief Judge of Federal High Court to secure the proscription of IPOB. IPOB has appealed this exparte declaration which they claim was done out of malice.
The aforementioned cases of abominable extralegal killings of IPOB members are not the only main concern of this piece. Members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria known as Shiites have also allegedly suffered extralegal killings by the soldiers. Suspects have also allegedly disappeared from police detention facilities across Nigeria in the last 57 years but the last two years are particularly worrisome.
Generally speaking, since the last 57 years, many Nigerians have suffered different degress of deprivations and gross human rights violations. Economic deprivations and the rapid collapse of critical health, educational and transportation infrastructures due to corruption by government officials have occasioned thousands of deaths that ordinarily are avoidable. But amidst all the cases of human rights violations, the most disturbing phenomenon is the rapid decline in the respect to the right to life.
Let us look at what the constitution says about the right to life in section 33(1).The grund norm states as follows: “Every person has a right to life , and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life, save in the execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria.”
The right to life as propounded by the constitution is however recklessly disrespected by the government and a range of non-governmental individuals. Daily, social crimes of kidnappings do occur and thousands of Nigerians have perished.
On many occasions, armed Fulani herdsmen have unleashed devastating violence and arson on farming communities all across Nigeria but the Nigerian government under President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to bring these vicious circle of deaths to an end and to punish these killers. The other day key officials of the current administration defended the government’s double standard in hurriedly declaring the unarmed IPOB as a terror group but simply sees the armed herdsmen as mere criminals and not terrorists.
It can then be said that the last two years can be ranked as the worst in terms of human rights violations apart from the killings that took place for 30 months in the late 60’s during the Nigeria/Biafra civil war. Over 3 milion civilians were killed in that needless war. The last two years has seen Nigeria emerge as a place whereby grave human rights violations take place. Amnesty International in its 2016/2017 World human rights report indicted the Nigerian government of a range of serious human rights abuses.
Amnesty International said: “The Nigerian security forces, led by the military, embarked on a chilling campaign of extrajudicial executions and violence resulting in the deaths of at least 150 peaceful pro-Biafra protesters in the South-east of the country, according to an investigation by Amnesty International”.
“Analysis of 87 videos, 122 photographs and 146 eye witness testimonies relating to demonstrations and other gatherings between August 2015 and August 2016 consistently shows that the military fired live ammunition with little or no warning to disperse crowds. It also finds evidence of mass extrajudicial executions by security forces, including at least 60 people shot dead in the space of two days in connection with events to mark Biafra Remembrance Day.”
“This deadly repression of pro-Biafra activists is further stoking tensions in the South east of Nigeria. This reckless and trigger-happy approach to crowd control has caused at least 150 deaths and we fear the actual total might be far higher,” said Makmid Kamara, Interim Director of Amnesty International Nigeria. “The Nigerian government’s decision to send in the military to respond to pro-Biafra events should be blamed for this excessive bloodshed. The authorities must immediately launch an impartial investigation and bring the perpetrators to book.”
In summary, the human rights record of Nigeria at 57 is abysmal and very poor to put it mildly.
The National Assembly has failed the people and has not effectively served as an institutional mechanism to check the excessive brutality of soldiers and police against the civilians. The National Assembly has little consideration for human rights and is basically concerned about passing legislations that can consolidate their stay in political offices. As I write this piece, the House of Representatives is busy churning out anti-people’s legislations to stiffle the fundamental human rights of Nigerians to set up Non-governmental organizations.
The Judiciary which should act as the last hope of the common man is not performing optimally but the judges are busy dishing out judgments to the highest bidders. Nigeria is ripe for a transformational revolution but the people aren’t in a hurry to even carry out incremental or small-scale revolution as they are too poor, too hungry to pursue this noble objective but do we the people have a choice? I don’t think so. The Nigerian people must wake up to repossess Nigeria and free the country from the hostile hostage takers and undertakers known as politicians.
– Concluded.
Onwubiko is head of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria.