Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Mr Auwal Musa, better known as Rafsanjani, in this interview, speaks on human rights abuses under the current administration.
This administration came into office with a promise to respect human rights. What do these cases say about the frequent abduction of journalists?
I am not sure if this government had openly said it would respect rule of law and human rights. If it did, it would be a huge indictment as the continued abuse of Nigerians' rights is on the increase. Also, there is not much effort on this administration's part to curtail killings of Nigerians including civilians and security personnel. Indiscriminate arrests and attacks on journalists have also been on the increase. Therefore, I am not sure if this government cares about the rights of Nigerians. Nigerians are going through hell as a result of bad government policies, intolerance and overzealousness of some security personnel, including the activities of non-state actors who have continued to perpetrate attacks on civilians, leading to serious human rights abuses. Little has been done by this administration to curtail these things. As a matter of fact, the insecurity that is ending the lives of Nigerians in Zamfara, Katsina, Niger and Plateau states are clear testimonies that human rights agenda is not high on the table of this regime. Meanwhile, the constitution is very clear on these things. It says government must protect the rights and properties of Nigerians, but we are not seeing that happen. We do not visibly see the intervention of the government to protect the rights of Nigerians. There are so many attacks on communities, attacks on media personnel who simply express their opinions. These do not show that government is determined to protect the lives and rights of its citizens.
Are you satisfied with the response of the media and human rights community on rights abuse?
The civil society and media have been doing their best to raise the consciousness of government around issues of human rights abuses and attacks on journalists. In fact, we have tried to raise government's consciousness on attacks on civil society organisations and some government's institutions (anti-corruption agencies) by corrupt people and their enablers. These are things that we keep seeing. Yet, in collaboration with the media, civil society has been doing its best to draw the attention of government to take responsibility in protecting the citizens. However, some government officials do not really care. Unfortunately, they are sometimes victims of these abuses because they failed to protect the rights of citizens when they could. We have been seeing these things happen, especially when they are no longer in power. When they were in power, they refused to take necessary actions to protect citizens' lives, properties and rights. When they are out of power, their own rights are also not guaranteed because they refused to take necessary actions when they were in the position to do so.
What do we do to ensure that abuses like these end?
We will continue to support the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, we will continue to support all the necessary institutions that promote and defend the rights of Nigerians. We will also continue to work with civil society organisations to ensure that we educate more Nigerians on their rights and what should be done if abused. We will also ensure that we draw the attention of government to some of the obnoxious laws that we have that impinge on the fundamental human rights of Nigerians. We will continue to do this to ensure that the rights of Nigerians are protected and respected. That way, they can seek redress anytime their rights are abused.
How do you think the international community, especially the world powers who take human rights seriously see us with what has happened and the potential consequences. And what does this do to free speech and media rights?
Human rights abuses promote anarchy, injustice and create hopelessness and lack of confidence in the administrative justice system. It increases the potential of people taking laws into their hands, making the record of Nigeria at the global level low because it portrays Nigeria as a country that does not live up to expectations. These things give us a very bad image among the comity of nations. They won't take us seriously because we don't take necessary actions to protect our citizens. It may even scare some potential investors and visitors who want to come to Nigeria. Who would want to come to a country where they can be kidnapped? Who would want to come to a country where they can be molested? It has huge repercussions, and that is why we are calling on government to ensure that abuses are absolutely curtailed and an administrative justice system is in place. People don't have access to justice because they don't have money to bribe judges and police. So, human rights abuses continue to rise. If you go to the police stations, you will see all sorts of difficulties and challenges that people face. It is a very serious issue that we cannot continue to overlook.
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What is your advice to the media and Nigerians generally stemming from these incidents?
We must insist that human rights are ours and we cannot allow those rights to be trampled upon.
