“Democratic” Dictatorship Instigates Intimidation, Unlawful Arrests and Extrajudicial Killings, and

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The democracy in Nigeria like most of its African counterparts is largely on paper. The people aren’t fully aware where real power lies; government officials are revered, army and police officers are feared and the majority of people are timid and unable to comfortably express themselves for fear of unlawful arrests, torture, or being killed.

In Nigeria, political power is not for service but reverence; this explains the numerous coups pre-1998, desperation for political power, and the incessant claims of politicians using intimidation, murder, bribery, and even black magic (so-called “Juju” and occultism) to obtain and maintain power. Many Nigerians believe that a good number of their past and present politicians are fetish and diabolical. Basically, the form of politics practiced in Nigeria has kept the government very powerful, and attempts to curtail such excessive power are shunned with intimidation, unlawful arrest and extrajudicial killings.

The general “sir” mentality and superiority complex of top government officials is the root of the intimidation witnessed in Nigeria. This mentality is what makes security forces think they are above the law and express themselves as “unlawful agents of the law”. The horrible Boko Haram situation in the Northeast has exposed the weakness of the security forces and they retaliate by unlawful arrests and extrajudicial killings. Human Right Watch (HRW) released reports in April of 2016 which indicated that the Nigerian Military drove at high speed into the Sambisa Forest Reserve, where some Boko Haram Hostages, mostly women and children were crushed by their moving trucks. Some survivors confirmed that they were not alerted on how they could have avoided the incident. The abuse of human rights was further exposed when in July and September of 2015, the military released 310 women and children that had been detained for the past 2 years without charges. It is generally believed that the women and children were likely victims of Boko Haram, rather than the actual Boko Haram members who have been committing heinous crimes, mostly murdering millions of innocent people, especially Christians.

All over Nigeria, especially the south-eastern parts, human rights abuses such as intimidation, unlawful arrests and extrajudicial killings have been going on, attempts to stifle or suppress fundamental human rights and free speech. Rarely are military or police officials prosecuted for these abuses.

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Please read: Extrajudicial Killings by the Nigerian Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Previously published on SitiTalkBlog.

Please read: Amnesty International Declares: Nigeria: Killing of unarmed pro-Biafra supporters by military must be urgently investigate. Previously published on SitiTalkBlog.

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The Nigerian media continues to expose cases of human rights abuses despite significant intimidation and harassment suffered by media personnel, actions aimed at impeding freedom of speech. In 2015 The Daily Trust journalist Joseph Hir, suffered from an attack allegedly by supporters of the Governor of Nasarawa State for writing a negative article against him. Same year, McDominic Nkepemenyia correspondent with Tide news paper and Yomi Olomofe, executive director of Prime Magazine, were mercilessly beaten and injured by a group of people because of their unfavorable reports by the journalists.

The norm in corruption and poor governance obstructs the enjoyment of basic human rights by many Nigerians who are in abject poverty. Basically, the government that is meant to protect its people appears now to be the number one enemy of the people. While Nigeria is drowning under its current “democratic" dictatorship, the average Nigerian is also being robbed by hardship due to a collapsing economy and continued poor governance.

However the Nigerian 1999 constitution safeguards the rights of all individuals and establishes democracy as a means of governance with proper separation of powers, but the executive branch remains too powerful and continues to usurp all powers.

References

https://www.hrw.org/africa/nigeria

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Nigeria

http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/countries/africa/nigeria

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016/country-chapters/nigeria

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Ernie J. Burgher is a bi-lingual freelance journalist and author, and speaks English and French. Ernie writes for SitiTalkBlog.

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SitiTalkBlog is focused primarily on Africa's socio-economic and political issues, scientific and medical topics, as well as global current issues and news. SitiTalkBlog also highlights positive entertainment as long as it has the potential to cause us to think and take positive actions. The blog is geared towards sensitizing people to take constructive actions and engineer practical solutions

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