Today is the international human rights day. The international human rights day is a day observed internationally to focus on the rights of citizens as enshrined in international conventions to which most countries are signatory. Nigeria, is a signatory to the UN Charter on Human and Peoples Rights. This charter spells out rights which governments are supposed to abide by. Nigeria usually signs these protocols with ease but normally obeys them in the breach.
It is difficult to know where to measure human rights abuse in Nigeria. Recently, a group carried out a survey in which they found out that about 50 extra-judicial killings have been carried out in various police formations in the country. The group took its findings to the Human Rights Commission which in turn took the case to the Inspector-General of Police, the first natural port of call for crime prevention and for those who are seeking justice. Unfortunately, the police has been a let-down to the average Nigerian. On a day like this, we call on the government to put into use all the reports of the various commissions and panels it has set up to reform the police so as to make it a people-friendly and pro-active force to reckon with.
The Nigerian law courts, touted as the last hope of the common man is so far from the reach of the commoner that sometimes, people do not know that the courts exist. The courts, like the police, lack the basic essentials to dispense of justice without manipulations. In the past year or two, the National Judicial Council has been goaded by certain happenings to ‘discipline’ some judges. This is rather instructive, because those who have looked at the machinery of justice in this country believe that for every bad egg caught on the bench, there are perhaps a dozen others whose days of reckoning are still far off. Government must make sure that it has the oversight and encourage all the organs responsible for ensuring that the judiciary is immune from the machinations and manipulations of the ruling class.
President Olusegun Obasanjo has himself been a practical and living example of what happens when the right of the ordinary person is abused. Yet, since assuming office, this administration has not done enough to ensure reforms in the prison service. Our prisons, like police cells have not met the criteria or the standard as institutions of reform. The criminal justice system exposes even suspects to conditions, which make them, believe that there is nothing good in being good. Toughened criminals are more hardened with a few days experience either at the police station or at the prisons. Again, there has been a lot of commissions and panels set up by the government to review these issues. Unfortunately, the recommendations of these panels are left to gather dust. We believe that this is a period to again draw the attention of government to the gross human rights abuse that goes on in our prisons and detention centres.
On a day like this, it is also pertinent to recall the effort of the present administration at identifying and redressing the gross human rights violations which presaged the return of democracy. The highest of this was the setting up of the Oputa panel. This was done at a great economic cost to the Nigerian society and it was also meant to serve as assurance to people whose rights may be violated that no matter for how long – there is justice at the end of the dark tunnel of their experience. Unfortunately, it ended like most panels. For those who perpetrated abuses during the long years of military rule, they have learnt nothing from their callousness except that they can go away with blue murder. For victims, it is like raking up old wounds. By not publishing the report of the white paper on the Oputa Panel, the government is not only aligning with those who abused the rights of others, but encouraging others to tow their lines.
It has also been observed that one of the worst forms of human rights is the lack of access to economic rights by the Nigerian populace. The majority of Nigerians have been pummelled by sudden changes in socio-economic policies which have left them at the receiving ends. One of the greatest rights is the right of the people to existence. A situation where changes in policies turn a man who has right to life losing his life via extra-judicial killing is a gross violation of human right. So also are those who have lost their means of livelihood or their places of abode as a result of the deliberate change in policies and corruption at the highest places.
On a day like this, Nigerians are reminded that they belong to a comity of nations which should be governed by the rule of law. The rule of law guarantees the rights of individuals within the context of the whole. Human rights are economic rights and economic rights are human rights. Where the government claims to guarantee one but denies the other, it has failed in its duty and must be asked to retrace its steps. We can only hope that Nigeria would take bold and positive steps to restore the confidence of the people in their elected leaders to protect their interests and guarantee rights, which would make them, feel good and responsible citizens. The maxim – ibi jus ubi remedium – simply means that where there is no right, there is no remedy. In the Nigerian situation, the ruling class has often tried to deviate from speaking or working for the enthronement of people’s rights by saying that every right comes with a responsibility. This is very true, but no citizenry would think about responsibility in a serious way when its rights are abused with impunity.
A lot of strides have been made in the area of restoration of the confidence of the people in their government – the best way to guarantee this is for the citizens to know that the people they have elected are firmly committed to protecting their rights. That guaranteed, Nigerians have shown that they are very responsible people or people who are willing to take on their responsibility with zeal.
