Human Rights is declining- Nigerian Civil Society Group

Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko is the National Coordinator of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), a frontline civil society group in the country. In this interview with Leadership Newspaper, he states that the ongoing trial of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) is a political absurdity that cannot be seen in any growing democracy in the world, except in fictional narrative. He also bares his mind on the security situation in the country.

Excerpts:

How would you assess the human rights situation in the country at this time?

The human rights situation in the country is disappointing, it is appalling and it is in a very rapid decline. From all human development indexes, Nigeria seems to be at the threshold of imminent collapse in terms of the high level of disrespect for the fundamental human rights of Nigerian citizens. That is if you look at this from the point of view of the rights that are captured under chapter four of the 1999 constitution. These rights include the right to life, the right to freedom of movement, the right to freedom of association, the right to freedom of speech and the right to dignity of the human person. All these fundamental rights that are inalienable, that are universal have been grossly abused, not just by government officials, but even by stakeholders in the private sector and even by husbands, by wives and by the citizenry generally. But the most disturbing aspect of this human rights violation is the level of depravity that has emerged of recent in terms of certain persons who have armed themselves and are on a rampage of mass killings of ordinary Nigerians in their respective communities, especially in their farming lands. Most of these armed hoodlums have been associated with Fulani Herdsmen. There are other affiliate arms freelance killers: armed robbers, professional kidnappers, not to talk of the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists that have been terrorizing everybody in this country. The level of killings has reached a very unpardonable dimension that government is urgently advised to take immediate action to stop the speedy decline of respect for the rights of Nigerians.

In all this, where do you think the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has failed or succeeded in tackling the menace of human rights violation?

The National Human Rights Commission has almost very little role to play. It is strictly a security issue. We have individuals that we have spent billions of naira to train.

We have so many of them: the DSS, the Police and the NSDC which not too long ago were also armed. You have the military- Army, Air Force, Navy. These are Nigerians that have been trained professionally and equipped and motivated and paid to defend Nigeria and Nigerians from both external and internal aggressions. So, we have to put the blame where it belongs. The blame of the inability of Nigerians to be properly protected lies squarely with the security forces of Nigeria. It is unfortunate that the government of the day has failed to rise up to the challenge of modern day leadership. If a man who has been given the responsibility to discharge to his citizens fails, what happens to him? It is either that man is fired or he is arrested and prosecuted. Why has the Nigerian government fail to arrest any of these commissioners of police, any of these directors of SSS, any of these commanders of the military that are posted in all this areas. Except maybe Jos where you have JTF which seems to have performed quite okay, but in virtually every other places where you have Fulanis attacking people, most of these other security forces have failed. What is government doing? How many of these commanders have been arrested and prosecuted?  Because they have what we call command responsibility; if you have the command responsibility over an area and you fail to perform your duty, that it is criminal offence. Let’s take the case of the Enugu attack whereby the governor has now told the whole world that the commissioner of police briefed him about an imminent attack by Fulani herdsmen targeted at a community in Enugu State.

The commissioner of police collected huge mobilisation and logistics to stop the attack but he quietly went back to his bedroom, hide the money and did not carry out his job. There is even a question about the propriety of why a governor should even pay  a commissioner of police to do his job. Why do you have to pay a commissioner to do his job? So, there are two cases here: the man who collected the money belonging to the people of Enugu State has to be arrested for that offence of graft because that is graft. He duped the people of Enugu State and collected that money under false pretense. The EFCC has a role to arrest and prosecute him for that particular offence, while the Attorney General should also order for his arrest and prosecution for criminal negligence which has led to the death of several persons in Enugu. So, this is where the problem lies- not the National Human Rights Commission. The NHRC has the role of sensitizing Nigerians and to educate them on their rights and also to seat and adjudicate over human rights violation. But the most important institution that has failed is the security forces.