Recent developments in the Nigerian political space question the understanding and commitment of the leadership to human rights and fundamental freedoms. These developments are not only in civil and political rights recognised as fundamental rights under Chapter Four of the 1999 Constitution but there are also violations of economic and social rights through various breaches of laid down provisions of due process and anti-corruption legislation.
A proper appreciation of human rights indicates that they are inalienable and the birthright of all human beings. They are not some token given to citizens and residents by any government whether democratically elected or an imposed dictatorship. They ensure by virtue of our humanity. Indeed, as the legendary Fela Anikulapo-Kuti put it, “human rights na my property”. It is a fundamental aphorism that the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms provides a stabilising ground for development because human rights and development are two sides of the same coin. While human rights provide the impetus for development to proceed, development waters and nourishes human rights. Human rights liberate and free the mind from the clutches of impossibilities found within the lockdown of petty dictatorial mindsets. The case of states that have developed under totalitarian regimes brings another dimension to the discourse. It may mean that they emphasised economic and social rights while down-playing civil and political rights but at least, they have set the ball rolling in one dimension.
It is the position of this discourse that there is a fundamental right and duty to resist tyranny and oppression. This right is founded in national and international law standards starting from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which in preambular Paragraph 3 declares that: “Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law”. Essentially, this recognises an inherent right to rebel against tyranny and oppression when government refuses to serve the fundamental purpose of protecting life, property and liberty. Further, preambular Paragraph 3 of the 1999 Constitution speaks of providing “for a Constitution for the purpose of promoting the good government and welfare of all persons in our country, on the principles of freedom, equality and justice, and for the purpose of consolidating the unity of our people”. The principles are of welfare of the people, freedom, equality and justice, not of oppression, tyranny, arbitrariness and the whimsical conduct of some few elected or appointed into positions of authority. It is about the rule of law and its due process.
Recently in Nigeria, the rights to assembly, freedom of movement and the freedom to hold opinions and express them have come under severe attack. We have watched helplessly as the Buhari regime arrested members of the Southern Kaduna unions whose offence is that they were protesting the failure of federal and state authorities to provide protection for the most fundamental of the fundamental rights, being the right to life. It was reported that the police stopped their march in Kaduna and arrested their leaders. The persons in the rally were not reported to have attacked any individual nor destroyed public or private property. Yet, they were stopped -a clear case of severely brutalising a child as well as stopping it from crying. The same authorities that arrested them were derelict in their failure to protect the Southern Kaduna people even during periods of emergency and a curfew. The authorities imposed a curfew and under their watch, more killings happened. How else do you dehumanise a people?
Scores of people have been killed in Southern Kaduna and all that government officials do is to find apologies for the murderers while holding the victims, their families and survivors in contempt. For a government to describe murders under a curfew as revenge killing means they have not told Nigerians all they know about the killings. If government officials (who apologise for the murderers) know the persons who came on a revenge killing mission during a curfew but failed, refused and neglected to arrest the killers and bring them to justice, evidently the state is complicit and an accessory after the fact of the murders. Pray, in which sane society is a sector commander in charge of areas under curfew and still had murders committed under his watch not held to account for the lives?
The arrest and detention of “RevolutionNow” protesters also marked another low point in a regime already hobbled with a poor human rights record. What was their offence; holding an opinion and verbalising it and daring to march in support of that opinion? Under which law does this amount to an offence? Yet, this is the Nigeria of 2020; a Nigeria that dreamt in its Vision 2020 of being one of the first 20 largest economies in the world by now. However, instead of achieving that feat, we have become the poverty capital of the world and a laughingstock as an index case of how resources can be mismanaged.
Again, Nigerians have watched helplessly as elected and appointed officials brazenly loot the resources put at their disposal for rendering public services. The Economic and Financial Crimes and Niger Delta Development Commission dramas are almost ending, and no one is being held to account. Yes, no one is facing prosecution, no one is in prison, no steps have been taken to recover any stolen property. It is all the drama of the absurd, of some demented rascals occupying seats they do not deserve and the drama of fainting in the middle of a legislative public hearing. Do we not see a nexus between violations of the rights to life, food, adequate housing, health, etc. and this constant looting of the treasury? Have we not seen that the Buhari regime has taken Nigerians for a ride in the name of fighting corruption while allowing the same corruption to fester and deepen across many public institutions?
In a situation where the rights of Nigerians are violated on a daily basis and their right to protest against such violation is also denied, the developmental space becomes severely constricted, tied down by inertia and the state simply becomes a criminal enterprise for the few in the corridors of power. But these few forget one thing, that power is transient and in the next four years, they could become victims of a system they set up to oppress others. The shame of the decade is that instead of making progress, government has put Nigeria in the reverse gear in most aspects of national life and the ship of state seems to be rudderless.
The struggle for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms must be reinvigorated in Nigeria if we are to have any chance of escaping the current underdevelopment. It is up to Nigerians.
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