Human rights: How well has Nigerian Army fared?

IN 2016, against the backdrop of massive media attention in Nigeria about the rare decision of the then leadership of the Nigerian Army to set up the first of its kind human rights desk in addition to the appointment of a full two- star general as Head of the civil and military affairs, the United Nations Human Rights Council was so impressed that a publication on its website commended the Army for such an unprecedented positive step to mainstream the respect of human rights in the operational modalities of the military in Nigeria. Although globally, the governments of most nations do not toy with the promotion and protection of human rights of their citizens and therefore make it obligatory on all persons and authorities to follow the constitutional norms and laws that are safeguards against the violations of human rights, advanced nations such as the USA don’t place a lot of premium on whether less advanced nations such as Nigeria, respects human rights of their people. Ironically, Nigeria being one of the less developed nations which embraced democracy lately, human rights of the citizens were not so much such big issues that the government should care so much about. Incidentally, the USA that is the self acclaimed world’s policeman of democracy, has no time to look at the status of human rights in Nigeria beyond the routinely empty rhetorical reports that the U. S. State Department often issues annually without any diplomatic sanctions. It must be stated that since the early 90s when the military held sway as head of government, Nigeria established the National Human Rights Commission in compliance with the Paris principles on human rights. The military dictatorial regime of Sani Abacha actually set up a structure known as National Human Rights Commission. Specifically, the Paris Principles or principles relating to ( the status of National Human Rights Institutions), set out the minimum standards that National Human Rights Institutions ( NHRIS) must meet in order to operate effectively. The key pillars of the Paris Principles are pluralism, independence and effectiveness. On December 20, 1993 to be very precise, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution 48/ 134 on National Institutions for the promotion and protection of Human Rights, with an annex containing the principles, in which it encourages all states in the w: orld to embrace. From the council of Europe’s portal, a statement titled: ‘ Paris Principles at 25: Strong national Human Rights institutions needed more than ever’, of December 18, 2018. It was repeatedly stated that the independent and effectiveness of national human rights institutions were every bit as important and relevant today. It is even more so now. The military government that set up that human rights monitoring body, did not however, cared a hoot about human rights. This explains why it was just in the late 2000s that human rights desks, not department, were established by the hierarchy of the Nigerian Army. A case in point is that of a junior female Army operative, Miss. Ruth Ogunleye, who has just been arrested even though she publicly reported repeated cases of sexual harassment in which she is the target by two senior Army officers and her violators and torturers are big men in the Army. Following her arrest, Nigerians have taken to their social media accounts to express their dissatisfactions. It was learnt that the soldier was arrested and flown to Abuja from Lagos on Tuesday. “She was flown out accompanied by military police in mufti from Lagos to Abuja,” a top military source disclosed. The soldier serving in Lagos State, who did not disclose her name, raised the alarm in the trending video that some senior army officers were threatening her life for rejecting their sexual advances. She lamented how the senior army officers had been oppressing her since she was posted to Army Cantonment Medical Centre, Ojo, Lagos in 2022, for refusing their sexual advances. She said she had been locked up several times for no reason, ejected from her apartment, and put in a psychiatric hospital for a month without any medication based on a false claim that she had a mental illness. According to her, her bank account had been frozen since February 2023 and she had not been paid salary for no reason. She further alleged that one of her alleged oppressors had attempted to rape her on multiple occasions. The female soldier said the army officer later claimed that she had a mental illness, adding that she had made several efforts including writing a petition and getting some senior and junior officers to intervene but that all was to no avail. She also said that the same senior army officer who she claimed wanted to rape her, had denied her access to every army course and passes to see her parents. According to her, her father contacted the officer over her issues, but the officer told her father to inform her to obey the last order. She said, “I know definitely they will come for me. They will lock me up and they will dismiss me but I don’t care. I can’t endure it again. Before coming out to make this video, I can’t endure again. I don’t want to die young.” The army through Major- General Onyema Nwachukwu, the Director of Army Public Relations stated that the female soldier did not inform relevant bodies and institutions about her predicament before releasing the video. There are a litany of well known cases involving human rights violations against civilians committed by the Army. This surely, is a manifestation of backwardness by the Nigerian army that was celebrated by the United Nations Human Rights Council for the establishment of human rights desks within Army’s institutional platforms. Last December 2015, UN Human Rights Advisor in the UN Country Team in Nigeria, Martin Ejidike, helped bring together at the same table National Defence officials, UN agencies and the National Human Rights Commission who, during a workshop, analysed with troops real case studies on the ongoing Operation Lafiya Dole in Maiduguri, north- eastern Nigeria. “Counter insurgency and counter- terrorism operations are usually difficult for conventional forces as insurgents do not observe human rights norms,” Major General Akem pointed out during the workshop in Maiduguri. “But, as professionals, the armed forces are obliged to do so.” General Rogers, Chief of Civil and Military Affairs, said that the creation of the Human Rights Desk addresses the increasing interest by local and international actors on the human rights issues related to the counter- insurgency operations in Nigeria. The army’s aim is to bridge the gap with civil society on human rights.” The National Human Rights Commission is comatose. To compound the situation, the UN which has the Deputy Secretary General from Nigeria in the person of Amina Mohammed, a Gombe State’s born diplomat who has a Swedish Mum, has also gone silent concerning the deterioration of human rights abuses committed by the soldiers and the police in her fatherland. The United States Secretary of State is visiting Nigeria and as expected, public speeches would be made by the Country’s political leaders. The truth is that America cares only about its own interest, provided the manufacturers of weapons and military grade weapons of war in USA are smiling to their banks with humongous amounts of dollars by way of huge turnover from arms sales and supplies to both governments and terrorists in West Africa.

Onwubiko is the head of the Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria And was National Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission Of Nigeria.