PREMIUM TIMES NG
After six months in office as Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu has failed to uphold human rights in the country, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
The International human rights body said this at a public presentation of a document titled, “Nigeria: Human Rights Agenda 2023,” in Abuja.
The document details various areas of human rights violations in Nigeria.
“Tinubu unveiled new government policies that do not address rampant human rights violations across the country,” a press statement issued at the launch of the human rights agenda said.
However, the organisation said President Tinubu has the chance to ensure that everyone enjoys their human rights.
It urged the president to “hold perpetrators of past rights violations to account.”
In an opening statement, Isa Sanusi, country director, Amnesty International Nigeria, said it was imperative to set an agenda for the Tinubu-led administration in the area of human rights protection.
Mr Sanusi disclosed that copies of the agenda had been sent to President Tinubu and other top government functionaries with a view to helping them chart a new course of action against rights violations.
“We implore the government to make human rights protection its priority by ensuring that everyone Nigerian’s rights are protected, and that perpetrators of rights breaches do not go unpunished.
“We appeal to the government to study the document and come up with a plan on how to implement it,” Mr Sanusi.
In a similar tone, Auwal Rafsanjani, board chairman, Amnesty International Nigeria, said the human rights body was not “anti-government,” but opposed to egregious rights violations that are rampant in the country.
Mr Rafsanjani urged the government to prevent rights violations, and “if they occur, the government must investigate and bring perpetrators to justice.”
Highlighting Nigerians’ right to life, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly among others, Mr Rafsanjani decried the worsening economic status of the citizens, a situation he blamed on political corruption.
Police speak
Speaking at the event, a representative of the Inspector-General of Police, Kunle Olasunkami, said the Nigeria police remains the country’s foremost human rights protector.
But, Mr Olasunkami’s claim conflicts with available records of widespread human rights abuses committed by police personnel across Nigeria.
Mr Olasunkami, a police commissioner, acknowledged the efforts of AI Nigeria in advancing human rights in the country.
He, however, lamented that the police operatives are equally victims of rights violations, with no fighting for the enforcement of such rights.
The police officer pointed at the incessant killings of police officers in Nigeria’s southeastern region, and their disenfranchisement during elections.
