A group, Leadership and Accountability Initiative has enjoined the United States President Barrack Obama, to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari, to respect the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.
In a petition dated November 27, 2015, sent to President Obama, through the US Embassy in Abuja, the group posited that if urgent steps are not taken, President Buhari would soon turn Nigeria into a Police State.
The group recalled various human rights violations that have been committed by the Buhari administration in the last six months, stressing that the emerging dictatorship in Nigeria must be nipped in its bud.
The petition jointly signed by the Head, Leadership & Accountability Initiative, Nwazuruahu Henry Shield; President, Egalitarian Mission, Africa, barrister Kayode Ajulo; Head, Intergovernmental Liaison, Ambassador Timothy Ihemadu; and Coalition of Social Media Activists in Nigeria, Churchill Umoren; African Youth Human Rights & Democracy Network, Comrade Olawale Ajani; and 100 Lawyers for Democracy & Justice, barrister Zakari Baba, reads in full:
Mr. President Sir,
THE BUHARI GOVERNMENT, AUTHORITARIANISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS: SAVING NIGERIA’S DEMOCRACY FROM TOTAL COLLAPSE
We are constrained to present this petition on the authoritarianism and Human Rights Violation of the new Nigeria government led by General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd.) and to urge you to step in, in reversing the ugly trend.
The troubling trend of violation of citizens’ rights commences with the emergence of General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd.) as President, this trend negates the basic principles of our democracy, freedom guaranteed by our Constitution. The maxim, innocent until proven guilty, and the UN General Assembly resolution 217A, which insists that fundamental human rights must be universally protected.
President Buhari has a record of human rights abuses from the time he was military head of government between 1983 and 1985. After the sack of the Shehu Shagari led government, several politicians were incarcerated without trial. The process that led to the convictions of so many of them was neither transparent nor fair. Buhari also went after human rights activists, journalists etc.
With President Muhammadu Buhari second emergence through a democratic process in which he and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) during electioneering campaigns gave Nigerians lofty promises but turned around after the election to caution the populace not to expect miracles from him.
As it is, many of these promises have been denied and Nigeria has once again begin to witness obvious violations of citizen’s rights particularly targeted at member of the past administration and his perceived political rivals.
Few examples will suffice here:
• Security operatives raided the Akwa Ibom Governor’s lodge in Uyo, in search of some elusive stockpile of arms and foreign currency. Nothing was found. The action has been tagged by the state legislature as an act of felony persecution and political vendetta”, which contravenes section 308 (1,2,3) of the 1999 constitution.
• Gordon Obuah, erstwhile Chief Security Officer to former President, Goodluck Jonathan nearly died in the cells of the DSS. Reports say, he fainted and went into coma several times. The DSS claimed he was involved in illegal oil bunkering. He was denied access to his attorneys, family and medication even though he is hypertensive.
• Few days ago, operatives of the DSS raided the Abuja home of former Sokoto State governor, Attahiru Bafarawa. It was not clear why they went after him. Why they raided his house when they were aware he was abroad at the time is still mind boggling.
• Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd) ordeal is one of the very lows of the present administration wanton abuse of rights and disregard of court orders.
Buhari’s dictatorship was earmarked by chilling human rights abuses which included draconian decrees exemplified by Decree 20 under which the judicial murders of Nigerian citizens, Lawal Ojuolape, Bernard Ogedengbe and Bartholomew Owoh were authorized by Buhari. Particularly, Ogedengbe was murdered for a crime that did not carry the death penalty at the time it was committed in violation of the universal revulsion of ex post facto laws.
After celebrating fairness, due process, and the rule of law last July to win the goodwill of the United States, General Buhari returned to Nigeria to do what he knows best. He went after perceived opponents in the name of fighting corruption. Prominent was the vendetta against former NSA, Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd). He placed Dasuki under house arrest, confiscated his passport, charged him with unlawful possession of firearms and money laundering violations and sought a secret trial to prevent independent scrutiny.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola in his ruling, explained that an accused is presumed innocent before the trial, and that a citizen’s health is paramount before the law. Buhari was ordered to release Dasuki’s passport, the order was defied. He put Dasuki’s house under siege, a microcosm of the Bosnian Serb siege of Sarajevo.
Dasuki returned to court where Justice Ademola reaffirmed his order, asserting that “my own orders will not be flouted”.
As a military despot in 1985 he similarly seized the international passport of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo to thwart his travel for medical treatment, which led to his death in 1987.
It is instructive to note that, while the government should recover monies stolen by past government officials, and thereafter prosecute those found wanting; the Federal government’s anti-corruption agencies must not violate the fundamental human rights of the people.
Shortly after Buhari declared war on corrupt government officials, prominent Nigerians called for caution because there were clear cases of selective persecution, and violation of citizens’ rights.
Dasuki is yet to travel anywhere because he is technically barred by the Department of State Services (DSS). The Air Vice Marshall O. N Ode (Rtd) panel set up to probe the arms deals has already submitted an interim report indicting Dasuki and a host of others, subsequently, their arrests was ordered by Buhari.
The implications are, the AVM Ode’s report supersedes in urgency the order by Justice Ademola , and that the report constitutes a fresh case against Dasuki which he must answer before he travels.
It is highly presumed that Dasuki’s involvement in the coup that sacked the Buhari junta in 1985 may account for the president’s desperation to nail Dasuki at all cost despite obvious violations of his fundamental human rights.
Whether there is substance in the allegations of fraudulent arms contracts levelled against Dasuki, or not, the fact is that the DSS’s tough action ordered by Buhari has done violence to standard rules and procedures of investigations.
To make matters worse the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mustapha Malami, instead of protecting the rights of citizens, says the detention of Dasuki is in public interest. His weird argument “It is not enough to conclude that the order was flouted. One has to look at the peculiarities of the prevailing cases on ground. You can be granted bail with respect to one case and there can be other cases that public policy demands investigation”.
The Washington Times had few months ago indicted President Buhari over the current ordeal of the former NSA who was being prevented from travelling, despite the subsisting court order that granted him permission to embark on a medical trip abroad.
The newspaper titled the damaging piece “Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari dupes the US”. It slammed Buhari for “ uttering time-worn democracy vows during his visit to the United States, where he promised to “ combat graft with procedures that would be fair, just, and scrupulously follow due process and the rule of law, as enshrined in the Nigeria constitution”
It is pertinent at this point to draw the attention of your honourable institution to the burgeoning police state that is emerging in Nigeria, and to seek the intervention of your office to ‘be the voice of reason’ that will nip the emerging dictatorship in its bud, lest the nation descend again into the dark days of guns, jackboots and whips.
We fear that, if action is not taken urgently, we may witness a crisis of epic proportion that could magnify the number of refugees to the already large number of internally displaced persons which the Federal government through the assistance of international community is grappling to contend.
Grateful for anticipated intervention, Mr. President
Thank you.
