Violation of Human Rights: How Nigeria is making A mockery of the Chapter IV of its Constitution -By Ronke Adedoyin

Since the inception of democracy, it’s been defined to be mutually constitutive with human rights because a democratic environment fosters the promotion and protection of human rights and a democracy wouldn’t really exist where human rights are violated. Sadly, Nigeria has proven this to be untrue. On the 10th of December 2020, the Nigerian netizens circulated emblems to commemorate the Human Rights day in a year that the violation of human rights was at its peak in the country. It should be recalled that Nigeria is a democratic society in the throes of the oppression inflicted by a fascist government.

Following the repression of the freedom of assembly and freedom of expression that annihilated the first phase of the #EndSars protests, every human right known to the populace has been violated. While this isn’t new, it’s like an escalating scourge. The violence against women is pervasive in Nigeria and it’s degrading when a soldier strips a woman naked in the Southwestern state of Ogun in Nigeria for allegedly dressing indecently.

This blatant breach of right to dignity of a human person occurred not long after the Western Nigeria Security Network declared they would begin to punish anyone who dressed indecent dressing. It reeks of “Misplaced priorities” when outfits responsible for combating insecurity are acting beyond the scope of their duties while Insurrection has the Northern states in shambles.

The disappearance of Dadiyata still poses a threat to journalists who dare to speak or uncover suspicious events and in the case of activists like Omoyele Sowore who, despite having been declared a prisoner of conscience alongside Seun Bakare and Agba Jalingo by Amnesty International, is at the mercy of the Nigerian government to whom the judiciary is subservient; have had their freedom of expression and movement curtailed.

College students are the pawns in the power tussle between the federal government and the academic staff union of universities who are yet to arrive at a consensus. It is distasteful when education which should be a right becomes a privilege in a democratic country.

Life is sacrosanct but the Nigerian government holds no regard for the sanctity of life and this has been apparent on several occasions. It should be recalled that the Chibok girls who were abducted five years ago are yet to be found however, history has replicated itself with the abduction of six hundred schoolboys in Katsina state. The president who was in Katsina made no appearance rather, he sent delegates from Abuja to the scene and was later seen in a video. Such clownish behavior implies that there is no end to the impunity of the government and the joke is on the country as the ongoing crisis is making a mockery of a crucial part of the country’s grundnorm – Chapter IV of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended 2010. Beyond the hashtags on social media, Nigerians must find a lasting solution to the flagrant violation of their human rights.

Ronke Adedoyin writes from Lagos