Clement Nwankwo, a human rights advocate and executive director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, (PLAC) has noed that President Bola Tinubu should not have encouraged military intervention in Okuoma, Delta State, stressing that, the human rights community is watching his record.
Nwankwo made the submission on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande on Channels TV on May 3. He added that the corruption and impunity under the Tinubu government has worsened.
“It is very sad, for us who are monitoring the human rights situation in Nigeria, and we have been keeping a close eye on the present administration, headed by President Tinubu, who came in May of 2023, just under a year ago, moving, keeping an eye on his human rights record.
“But certainly some of these incidences will add up to provide a judgement on how he has respected human rights or not. And for such a heinous abuse of rights to a poor is certainly a dent in his credentials.
Nwankwo notes “President Tinubu comes from a background of involvement in the fight for democracy and the fight for human rights. So, we believe that this particular incident should be an incident that he should take very, very seriously and ensure that institutions and the military an institution of democracy because they provide security and all of these institutions have to operate within the rule of law,” he said about the invasion of Okuama in Delta State.
“I think no president should be even much more emphatic about respect for human rights than President Tinubu himself. It’s not just the journalist who was imprisoned under very, very harsh conditions and should in fact not have been arrested, but also there have been a few more incidents.
“We saw what happened recently in Okuama and adjoining communities where, very sadly, I must say this, that soldiers were killed, but sending soldiers into those communities, sealing off those communities, sending residents of those communities into hiding and into the forest and operating without regard for human rights is unacceptable.
Nkwankwo added that Tinubu needs to do more. “President Tinubu, even by his own speech, encouraged that to happen. Soldiers have no business maintaining law or peace in a community. They only can come in when the police have said they cannot and we need a backup.
“For the soldiers themselves to have gone into that community way ahead of the police is unacceptable. The president should never have encouraged soldiers go into those communities supposedly to carry out the investigation.
“It’s not their responsibility and the president should not make those types of comments suggesting that soldiers have those powers. So all of these add up to what would be the human rights credentials of this administration.
“We expect that President Tinubu, who comes from a background of understanding of the tenets of democracy and human rights, should never have encouraged soldiers to do so. And each time we do this thing, we whittle down on the ability of the police to be effective.
Nwankwo explained that the army overstepped its boundary. “The police need to be given support. They need to be equipped to handle even the most difficult conditions. This didn’t happen here. And for the future, you really must encourage a situation where the institutions of democracy are charged under the constitution with maintaining law and order in communities are given their responsibility.
“So I think that the president again failed in that regard. And whatever it is, the police have no powers to arrest, sorry, the soldiers, the military have no powers to go into communities and arrest civilians and investigate the commission of a crime.”
Nwankwo then waded into Nigeria’s democracy and the direction it was heading. “I think that there are challenges. I worry about where the trajectory is. Yes, we should celebrate that we have had uninterrupted civilian rule and this is 25 years this year of civilian administration.
“We do find that the existence of the legislative realm of government is a symbol of democracy. Each time the military intervenes, the legislature goes. So for us who are working in that space of policy intervention, it’s just so good to see that we’ve had the legislature working for 25 years.
“We hope that this continues. But we want to see a more effective legislature. We want to see a more responsive legislature. We want to see a government that also is more responsive to citizens’ demands.
“That’s perhaps part of the challenge that we are faced with. A lot of people get frustrated by the slow pace of development and by the deterioration in civic values, human values, and cultural values in this country.
On corruption in Nigeria, Nwankwo lamented that it is getting worse under the Tinubu administration. “The levels of corruption, perhaps, have gotten worse. The inability to account for the resources of the country has gotten worse. Those who have been elected into positions have not focused more on developing the human system and human life.
“For a lot of people, it’s actually been very desperate and frustrating. But again, like I said, civilian administration, I think, if a lot of us think back to 1983, when the civilian administration had, again, been such a huge disappointment, and you had people basically saying, look, we can’t continue with this, the consequence was that you had some of the most brutal dictators in the African continent emerge in Nigeria.
“And development was stultified for so many years. And then if you look at what is going on today, it’s the military that created such deterioration in values in this country. So for a lot of us, we believe that it’s important that there must be consciousness on the part of those who are leading this country, that they must lead rights, and that if they continue on the path that they are going, which is a path of unaccountability, a path of failure to respond to citizens’ demands, then we have a threat to continued democracy.
“But for us, who have seen the consequences of failure of democracy, it’s a scenario that we dread very much.
