|
Nigeria Human Rights
Nigeria was party to several international human rights
treaties, including the Convention Relating to the Status
of
Refugees (1967) and the Protocol Relating to the Status of
Refugees, the Convention on the Political Rights of Women
(1953)
and the International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms
of Discrimination against Women (1977), the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (1966) and the International Convention on
the
Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid
(1981), and
the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (1981).
Nigeria
also ratified the Slavery Convention of 1926, the
Supplementary
Convention on the Abolition of Slavery of 1956, and the
1949
Geneva Conventions Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners
of War
and the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
However,
it had not signed the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide (1948); the International
Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (1966); the International
Covenant on
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (1966); or the
Convention
Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading
Treatment
or Punishment.
The government's human rights record was mixed and
generally
worse during military rule, when decrees were exempt from
legal
challenge. Until the late 1970s, when military rulers
deprived
many citizens of their rights through detention without
trial,
physical assault, torture, harassment, and intimidation,
the
issue of human rights was not a major concern. It had been
taken
for granted that having a bill of rights guaranteed human
rights.
Thus, the independence (1960), republican (1963), Second
Republic
(1979), and Third Republic (1989) constitutions had
elaborate
sections on fundamental human rights. The fact that
Nigeria did
not become a one-party state as most other African states
did
immediately after independence forestalled the emergence
of
repressive measures, such as the preventive detention acts
prevalent in Africa.
By the early 1970s, however, the days of "innocence" in
relation to human rights were over. As Major General
Yakubu
Gowon's popularity declined, especially after he reneged
on his
promise to hand over power to civilians in 1976,
criticisms of
him and his cohorts increased. He reacted by detaining
these
critics for indefinite periods. This trend of abuse of the
rights
of regime opponents continued under the Muhammad/Obasanjo
government and, after the creation of the Nigerian
Security
Organisation (NSO) in 1976, human rights violations became
frequent. The return of constitutional government in the
Second
Republic (1979-83) reduced the violations, although the
human
rights record was poor because of the increasing powers of
the
police force and the NSO and the constant harassment of
political
opponents.
Under the Buhari regime military security was the
criteria
for judicial action, often in the form of military
tribunals. The
government not only gave the NSO greater powers but also
promulgated decrees that directly violated human rights.
The most
notable were State Security (Detention of Persons) Decree
Number
2 of 1984, which empowered the chief of staff at Supreme
Headquarters to detain anyone suspected of being a
security risk
indefinitely without trial (detention was for three months
initially, and then renewable), and Decree Number 4, which
made
the publication of any material considered embarrassing to
any
government official a punishable offense. Under Decree
Number 2,
many people considered "enemies" of the government were
detained
in NSO cells and allegedly tortured. Second Republic
government
officials, whom the Buhari regime held collectively
responsible
for the economic mess, were detained without trial or were
tried
by special military tribunals. At these tribunals, the
accused
was assumed guilty until proved innocent rather than
innocent
until proved guilty. Journalists and media organizations
were
regularly harassed by security agents; organized interest
groups
whose members dared to criticize the government openly or
engage
in demonstrations or strikes were proscribed.
The most active human rights group in Nigeria in 1990,
the
Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), founded by a group of
young
lawyers led by Olisa Agbakobe, emerged during the Buhari
days.
Before its emergence, human rights groups included the
local
branches of Amnesty International, far less effective than
the
parent organization, and the Nigeria Council for National
Awareness, founded after the assassination of Murtala
Muhammad to
protect a just and humane society. Several other
organizations
criticized the government's violations of civil rights and
urged
remedial measures. These groups included NANS, the NBA,
the NLC,
and the Nigeria Union of Journalists. In 1988 another
human
rights organization, the Committee for the Defence of
Human
Rights, was founded by Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, the radical
deputy
chairman of the NMA detained under the Buhari government.
When Babangida toppled Buhari in August 1985, one of
his main
arguments was the need to restore civil liberties. The new
regime
prided itself on being a defender of human rights, and
many of
Babangida's initial acts justified his human rights
posture. He
scrapped the NSO, threw open its cells and replaced it
with the
State Security Service (SSS) and other agencies; he
released most
of the politicians detained without trial and drastically
reduced
the jail terms of those already convicted; he appointed
Bola
Ajibola, the NBA president noted for his human rights
advocacy,
as minister of justice and attorney general; he scrapped
Decree
Number 4 and reduced the punishment for drug traffickers
from
public execution to jail terms; he annulled the
proscription of
"radical" groups such as the NMA and NANS; and he
persisted with
plans to restore civilian rule by 1992.
In other ways, however, human rights remained
substantially
circumscribed in 1990. Decree Number 2 remained in place,
and
numerous citizens had been incarcerated under it, although
the
allowable period of detention without charge was reduced
from six
months to six weeks in January 1990. With the aid of this
and
other decrees that restricted freedom, usually promulgated
retrospectively, such radical and outspoken critics of the
government as Gani Fawehinmi, Tai Solarin, and Balarabe
Musa were
regularly detained. Despite having annulled Decree Number
4, the
government had several brushes with media organizations.
In 1988
Newswatch was proscribed for six months, and
journalists,
academics, and civil rights activists continued to be
harassed by
state security agents. Although the notorious NSO was
dissolved
in 1986, the new security establishment in 1990 continued
to act
arbitrarily and with impunity. The government proscribed
radical
interest groups like NANS and the Academic Staff Union of
Universities, the central body of all university
professors and
lecturers. Several innocent citizens were subjected to
physical
assault without government reparations.
Data as of June 1991
|
