The fundamental rights are regarded as part of human rights and the regnant trend is to protect such rights and the enhancement of human dignity and liberty in order for a democratic society to thrive. The Fundamental Human Right Provisions are entrenched in the constitution and cannot be curtailed or denied from any citizen in this country.
In Nigeria, human rights violation is blatantly committed by government security forces and non-state armed groups, including Boko Haram and cattle herdsmen, which has created an atmosphere of insecurity; the agitations for the independent state of Biafra under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB in the old Eastern part of Nigeria was willy-nilly visited with violent military crackdowns irrespective of the constitutional right of the indigenous people for self-determination. The violation includes killings, abduction resulting in innocent deaths, injuries and widespread of destruction of property, extra judicial killing, beatings, rape, arbitrary arrest and detention, infringement of citizens right to privacy, restriction of press freedom, denial of fair public trial, discrimination on a large scale, violence against right to life etc. Life has become meaningless in Nigerian democratic system; for instance, disregard to court orders and the recent act of deployment of military bulldozers to the peaceful Eastern part of the country in the name of Operation Python dance which led to the unlawful abduction of the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB Mazi Nnamdi Kanu till date, has left the citizens in the state of topsy-turvy. Rights are breached with impunity or without opportunity to address them. The people are simply helpless over the issues of human rights violation in Nigeria especially in the Biafra land as government seems to be tolerating the factors contributing to human rights violation.
Of course, the non-violent political activism adopted by IPOB is not in doubt, which required no military response by the Nigerian military. However, the quest for public peace and order, assuming that was the case in the Eastern region, should have been engaged by the police and not the brutal use of force or projection of the military machine to enforce unity against a group of armless and innocent citizen pursuing agitations within the ambit of non-violence group except the situation borders on terrorism. Any attempt to crush the desire for self-determination of any group in the nation is not just against the principle of social justice but tantamount to wrong use of power as well as a gross violation of fundamental human and constitutional rights. Thus, the braggadocios deployment of the military troops to Biafra land in the guise of Operation Python dance, operation crocodile smile and the silent over the disappearance of the leader of the indigenous people of Biafra (Nnamdi Kanu) is not just shameful, wrongful, improper, bemusing, unwarranted and unconstitutional but, has degraded the country’s status as a democratic and free society as well as marks the dead of fundamental human rights in Nigeria.
Written by:
Cyril N. Orogwu Esq. and Ogeh Friday Igiri
For: Ebonyi Media
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