Politicians, security agencies take advantage of Nigerians’ ignorance of law – Prof Uwaoma

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Administration, Gregory University, Uturu, Abia State, Prof Uwaoma Uche, has noted that law enforcement agencies in the country take advantage of the fact that most Nigerians do not know their rights.

The Professor spoke on the topic, ”the Nexus between Political Leadership and Human Rights at the 2024 National Human Rights Lecture of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA on Thursday.

He said many citizens view the Constitution as a mere document rather than a binding or implemented law, largely because of the challenges in the implementation of the Constitution, especially on certain persons who are seen as the political class in Nigeria.

Prof. Uche pointed out that under international law, the political class are primarily responsible for ensuring the protection of human rights within their jurisdictions.

According to him, the political class has three levels of obligations towards Nigerians with regard to their fundamental rights which include respect, refraining from interfering with the enjoyment of the rights, protecting the right from intrusion or interference by third parties and to fulfil, provide resources to facilitate the enjoyment of the rights.

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He said, however, that the “question that begs for answers is – how far has the Nigerian Political class fared in undertaking these three obligations with respect to the Nigerian Fundamental Rights?”

“Using the Niger Delta area of Nigeria, one of the 10 most important wetland and coastal marine ecosystems in the world and home to some 31 million people, the IDP camps littered in some states in Nigeria and the actions of the Nigerian Police force in their dealing with Nigerians as indices, one would be right to say that the Nigerian political class has failed woefully in undertaking these obligations.

“In the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, oil pollution has ravaged the environment for the last 50 years.

“The majority of the people of the Niger Delta do not have adequate access to clean water or health care.

“Their poverty, and its contrast with the wealth generated by oil, has become one of the world’s starkest and most disturbing examples of the “resource curse”.

The human rights implications are serious, under-reported and have received little attention from the political class or the oil companies.

However, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) and the UN Human Rights Committee have expressed serious concern about this state of affairs and have called on the Nigerian government to take urgent action to deal with the human rights impacts of oil pollution and the consequent environmental degradation.

The professor added that ”The level of human rights abuse in the IDP campus is worrisome. Ranging from physical, sexual and economic abuse of the rights of the displaced persons.”

Speaking further on incessant brutality by securing agencies, he said the level of alleged brutality of the citizenry by the security agencies is quite abysmal.

“It is either on the road with multiple roadblocks, dehumanization, attack on communities and even razing down communities based on not defined causes. There is a need to improve the level of civil-military, police relationship…”