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We Are Yet To Have Democracy, Says Bello
Bukhari Bello is the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). In this interview with ALABI WILLIAMS he decries the continued abuse of the rights of Nigerians five years after the introduction of democratic rule. He said what we have so far is not yet democracy. Excerpts;
Human rights abuses in a democracy
THESE abuses still persist because, essentially we have always had truncated democracy in this country. Though the learning process is on, people still need attitudinal and behavioural changes and the institutions that should deal with these issues - the police, Judiciary, Ministry of Justice, the prisons are still the same institutions that were inherited from former regimes. Regime after regime have failed to do anything about the capacity of these institutions, to make them strong and solid. And we still have the same kind of approach to issues, that hang-over of dictatorial tendencies are still there, even within governance in the country. Still, people do not look and really peruse the Constitution to work within what it says, people still do things by the rule of the thumb just because they are in government. Even fiscal discipline is not there. We talk of transparency, accountability and good governance but we don't have it. If you go to the states, governors assume that the money they get for serving their states is their personal money. There is no fiscal discipline and the state Houses of Assembly do not carry out oversight functions on the activities of the governors. It is as if the legislators and council chairmen are hand picked by the governors. They feel that they can do whatever they like and people don't follow the Constitution. If they do, things could have been better. But we still behave just like in the days of the military. Some times, even worse.
Reinforcing the Constitution
The fundamental human rights are there in chapter four, but they are not sufficient in a situation whereby in Nigeria we have almost 70 per cent of people living below poverty line. The most important thing for the people is the issue of poverty. People who are struggling daily just to have one meal to eat, that is more important to them than freedom of association or expression. The people don't care about that because they want to exist. When you talk about the right to life, it is good, but what about the means to this life. That is the issue, because people still travel for 30 kilometres just to get drinking water in this country. They travel on foot and that is a tragedy. And we are talking of fundamental rights while people are struggling to cope with life. Together with their families. So, we need to transfer all the rights in chapter two of the 1999 Constitution back to chapter four, to really give meaning to what fundamental human rights are.
We need to begin now and all the talk about some rights not being justiciable is purely an escapist attitude of people not trying to live up to their responsibilities. We have resources in this country and if they are honestly and sincerely managed, we won't be where we are. The issue is that all these resources are being wasted and stolen. People still these resources everyday and they say they are the ones governing us. The issue is that these resources can go a long way to empower people to look for food by themselves, not a promise to provide them food everyday. The kind of poverty we have now we didn't have in the 1970s or 1960s, but things are daily deteriorating. The Middle Class is almost wiped out, where as Nigeria had a vibrant Middle Class up to 1985. But since 1986 till now, the Middle Class has been wiped out because of wrong and selfish policies.
Executing our mandate
In terms of executing our mandate, no body ever gives us directive or interfered with our work. The three arms of the Federal government have not interfered with our work. But the way the government interferes is by not funding the Commission. Lack of funds has a lot to do with our capacity to effectively discharge our mandate. Human rights work is a very large area, and we are not just talking of receiving complaints and redressing violation of rights. We do public enlightenment and education. This is a very important component of human rights, because once people know about it, they can defend themselves without going to any institutions for assistance. There are a lot of things that we need to do, but we cannot do because we do not have the funds to do so. This is the way government interferes with our work.
Accessing the Budget
Every year we prepare our own budget and take it through the Federal Ministry of Finance to the Executive. They are the ones who allocate funds to us. We then go to the National Assembly to defend it and see if we could get an increase. The problem is that we will go and make our submissions but they may give us a limit which we cannot go beyond. The National Assembly will tell you that there is a ceiling planned by the executive. That is not strictly in compliance with the Constitution because the National Assembly have the powers to increase or reduce any allocation depending on the need of the institutions concerned.
Military hang-over
It is not just a question of military hang-over. It is a matter of how we confront problems. Do you confront them through peaceful resolution and dialogue or through the use of force. As a constitutional government, you don't just use force. Even the police whose primary duty is to maintain law and order, you don't use them any how. You use them as a last resort. The best thing to do is peace making, resolving conflict not through force, police or soldiers, but through dialogue. People can argue and defer, but at least when we talk, we can find a minimum standard of resolving conflict.
2007 and retired soldiers
I don't think that the issue of retired soldiers need to be separated from the general situation in the country. Retired soldiers or not, the attitude of Nigerian politicians is still very negative towards democracy. The Nigerian politician is not a democrat. He is just a politician who still feels that going into government is not for service, but to better ones self and steal money. Not even the communities or the nation matters. Politicians go there for personal gains, and it has nothing to do with being a retired soldier or not. The attitude is a serious problem. We can overcome it by bringing issues of probity and good governance into service. People must be made accountable and budgets must be explained in very practical terms. But nobody asks questions, nobody reports back to the people. In other democracies, it is not like that because people are held accountable. Here, anything goes.
Oputa Panel and redressing injustice
The Oputa Panel was an attempt to bring out human rights violations to the public eye and redress them if they are found so to be. It was also an attempt to bring about reconciliation and even, to bring about a catharsis. When people say the things that happen to them, it is a way of reconciliation and bringing about some kind of redress. But unfortunately, it did not happen that way and we were all witnesses to it. The members of the panel did all they could and worked in good faith. But unfortunately, the way the panel was set up was faulty. That is why we have not heard anything about the Oputa Panel up till now. When it was being set up, we said that the parliament should enact law setting it up with powers to provide amnesty for those who confess their wrong doings and provide redress for victims and reconciliation for everyone. Unfortunately, it was set up by the President under the Commissions of Enquiry Act, which is limited in scope and nature. As such, some Nigerians who felt they may be affected by its recommendations went to court and the Supreme Court gave judgement that the panel is not applicable to the federation of Nigerian. It is not a law passed by parliament and is only applicable to the federal capital territory being an executive order. If the panel were established by an Act of Parliament, it would have had general application all over the country.
If the panel and its recommendations were to be accepted and implemented, it would have gone a long way to show people that impunity cannot be tolerated; that you cannot violate peoples' rights and go free. It would also have introduced a culture of reconciliation in this country and people would have understood that there is deterrence. That, you cannot violate the right of the people and go free. It will also bring about a culture of reconciliation in this country. Not only that, there are supposed to be some other issues that ought to be transferred to the National Human Rights Commission as a permanent institution for continued investigations and resolution. All that we cannot do. And there are a lot of people who are feeling so bad about a lot of things that happened to them. There has been no reconciliation and redress. We have lost a chance for reconciliation and redressing of violations and we have lost the chance to show to Nigerians that impunity cannot be tolerated.
Importance of Independent Commissions
The Human Rights Commission does not interfere with cases that are already in court. The people have to decide where to go. So far, we have handled more than 30,000 cases. When we investigate, we decide the outcome. Even though we don't have the instrument to enforce our decisions surprisingly, people do comply. Most of the violators are government agencies and they comply. The Army and the Police may delay, they still comply. Under the Paris principle, which is the standard set up by the United Nations for the setting up of Human Rights Commissions, we are supposed to be independent even though we are funded by government.
Our independence is a matter of the mind. There are so many independent agencies in this country; how independent are they? Independence is a thing of the mind.
Human rights and death penalty
The debate for death penalty is a world wide movement. It is an on-going debate and there have been a lot of consultations all over the country. From the consultations, we have had people hold different positions on the matter and it cuts across religion, regions and state. It is a way of asking Nigerians how they feel about death penalty. The consultation is still going on. After that, it will go to the parliament for another debate and then to the executive. It is not a one-day decision.
Party politics
What we are seeing is not politics in the real sense of the word and it is not democracy. What we are seeing is people who are not in office to serve but to serve themselves. We cannot go farther in democracy and have development if we do not imbibe good governance. That means, we must be accountable and transparent in everything we do. We cannot have a good polity unless we have sanctity of the ballot. Our elections are not yet free and fair and that is not democracy. Democracy presupposes that people's votes are counted and no one is rigged out. People's wishes need to be respected for us to move forward.
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