HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE COMMUNITIES

Basic rights of Nigerians should be respected at all times

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark the 2025 Human Rights Day with the theme ‘Our Everyday Essentials’, it is another reminder that human rights begin with every individual and the choices we make every day. Authorities in our country must also work to address some of the human rights infringements that define this season. They include the absence of social protection for the most vulnerable of our society, failure to ban harmful practices like chaining individuals with disabilities and high rates of child abandonment, sexual violence and lack of adequate support for survivors.

While this year’s 16 Days of Activism on violence against women and girls ends today to symbolise the essence of rights that are inalienable, it must go beyond the usual rhetoric to actual formulation and implementation of survivor-centric laws and policies that identify and punish tech-facilitated gender violence. On a day such as this, it is also important for the authorities to uphold the rights of Nigerians regardless of status. Our teeming population of young people must be supported to advance their education, build businesses, and contribute to society.

More importantly, we must tackle the growing insecurity in the country. “These mass school kidnappings once again lay bare the deliberate targeting of students, teachers, and schools in Nigeria’s deteriorating security environment,” said Aniete Ewang, Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW) on the World Report 2025 which highlights mass abductions of students, failure to protect civilians, as well as lack of accountability by agents of state.

Last week, the International Press Institute (IPI) Nigeria urged the federal government to call state governments and security agencies to order over the continuous harassment of journalists, which has resulted in Nigeria falling 10 places in the global Press Freedom Ranking in 2025. For what it described as various acts of harassment and intimidation of journalists, the IPI listed the Inspector General of Police, Olukayode Egbetokun and the Governors of Niger and Akwa Ibom States, Umaru Bago and Umo Eno respectively in its ‘Book of Infamy’. The body has also demanded a review of extant Nigerian laws like the Cybercrime Act that has become a tool for the harassment of innocent citizens, especially journalists.

The root of this problem is an embarrassing ignorance on the part of security operatives on the basic rights of citizens in a democratic society. Correspondingly, we are often dealing with officers of the law who do not understand their obligation as the protection of fellow citizens and their basic rights. Aside from all these, elected governments that routinely adopt unpopular policies cannot be trusted to protect people from abuse by agents of state. On the basis of unproven allegations, sometimes without any allegation, personnel of our law enforcement agencies would subject innocent citizens to all manner of molestations.

Given the foregoing, there is an urgent need to reform not only the administration of justice in Nigeria but also the operational strategy of these security agencies if they must regain public confidence. Emphasis needs to shift from law enforcement to crime prevention with reforms targeted at improving their human rights records. In the immediate, agents of state must stop using the Cybercrime Act as a tool to circumscribe the rights of citizens in defence of the affluent of the society, and those in positions of authority who abuse their powers.