HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH SCORES YAR'ADUA'S GOVT LOW

An international watchdog, Human Rights Watch (HRW), has said there are serious setbacks, especially in addressing Nigeria’s “chronic human rights problems and endemic corruption.”

In a letter to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and signed by its Nigerian Researcher, Mr. Eric Guttschuss, the HRW in an assessment of the Yar’Adua administration said halfway through his presidential mandate, the President had undermined the country’s foremost anti-corruption body and done little to rein in an abusive police force. The body accused the administration of failing to address the root causes of escalating crisis in the Niger Delta, saying it had failed to address the causes of Nigeria’s human rights problems or change the atmosphere that allows abuses to persist.

It also faulted endemic government corruption and mismanagement, which it said robs ordinary Nigerians of their basic right to health and education and ongoing state-sponsored violence by the security forces in the Niger Delta as other setbacks of the country.

Though the global watchdog acknowledged what it described as the administration's tentative steps to address Nigeria’s human rights concerns, it however noted that the efforts had so far amounted to little impact on the lives of ordinary Nigerians.

HRW, therefore, proposed a 10-point human rights agenda to include: passing a proposed Freedom of Information Bill; improving oversight of state and local government expenditures; holding accountable government officials responsible for embezzling public funds or instigating political violence; passing legislation barring discrimination against “non-indigenes”.

Other recommendations include: investigating and prosecuting members of the security forces implicated in extrajudicial killings, torture, or other serious human rights violations; dismissing the Chairman of the electoral commission; and appointing an inspector general of police committed to ending police abuses.

It stated that Yar’Adua in his inaugural speech, promised to pursue an impartial, “zero-tolerance” policy toward corrupt officials, but instead he had fired the dynamic chief of the anti-corruption commission and had not held accountable key ruling party politicians who had been credibly implicated in the massive looting of the state treasury. HRW also said the National Assembly, which is controlled by the ruling party, had not passed the Freedom of Information Bill, which would have empowered the citizens by giving them access to government financial records.

The global watchdog argued that two years after the violent and deeply flawed 2007 elections which brought the President to power, elections were still determined by fraud and violence rather than the will of the people.

By Davidson Iriekpen