1. A Painful Gap:
In general, what strikes me is the
painful gap between words and deeds, between policies and realities as regards the
protection of Human Rights of Nigeria. Despite some obvious lacunae and even
outright contradictions within the texts of our Constitution, the general
spirit within our present deficient constitution declares and prescribes the basic
norms for a proper protection of the Human Rights of Nigerians. The problem
therefore is not really with regard to our Laws and our Constitution. Furthermore,
our country is also a signatory to the major International Human Rights
Declarations and Conventions. The problem we have is clearly that of
implementation, matching deeds with words and ensuring that the realities on
the ground coincide with the policies that we claim to hold.
All this is in my opinion due to bad
or weak government. Often there is no political will to do the right thing and even
where there is the political will, there are no clear and efficient structures
on ground to ensure that the right thing actually gets done. A typical example
is in the whole area of access to redress in the law courts. Access to justice at
the law courts which should be a right of every citizen has now become the
privilege of the few who are rich and powerful.
2. The Tyranny of Poverty
Over and above, there is the tyranny
of poverty, rampant and abject poverty which has rendered many people powerless
and voiceless, incapable of resisting injustice, less still fighting for their
rights. This practically makes whatever we may say about human rights in
Nigeria a dead letter.
In particular, I have serious
concerns on three points:
3. The Right to Life:
First, there is the right to life
which is clearly spelt out in our Constitution and in the Fundamental Human
Rights to which we are signatories. Yet there is so much wanton killing going
on and killings with impunity. Extra-judicial killing by security agents is a
regular occurrence. Then there are the frequent outbursts of murderous
sectarian violence. As I am writing this text, we are hearing of over 500
villagers slaughtered in the middle of the night by marauding armed groups that
seem to have dissolved into thin air. Besides, people are left to die through criminal
neglect. And poverty is the greatest of these killers. We might take the example
of pensioners who are left to spend the last part of their lives in misery. Many
have died hanging around offices waiting for their meager pensions to be paid. The
low value which our society and by extension, our government gives to the life
of a Nigerian is very shameful. Otherwise, how can we take so lightly the fact
that so many of our country men and women are dying day in day out, either
through riots or conflicts or outright poverty and sickness?
4. Freedom of Religion
The second aspect of concern has to
do with the freedom of religion, which comes next in importance to the right to
life itself. Our constitution spells this out very clearly. It even goes
further to insist that the government of the Federation and of the States shall
never adopt any religion as State Religion. Most of us take this formulation to
mean that every religion is free and equal before the law of the land. And freedom
in this matter is not only in respect of the individual but also of groups. It includes
the freedom and the right to proclaim, to practice, to propagate and even to
change ones religion just as it gives freedom for any Nigerian to claim to have
no religion at all. But his is what the law says. In practice however, in many
instances, the reality is not so. As a Christian who has many contacts with
fellow Christians in many parts of Northern Nigeria where Islam has practically
been made into the official religion of the State, I see here a lamentable gulf
between what the law says and what is on ground. It is well known that in many
parts of Northern Nigeria, the State and the government refuses as a matter of
policy to give approval for land for Christians to build churches while in the same
State, Mosques spring out everywhere, everyday with no restriction. Similarly,
public funds are spent training Islamic Religious Leaders and no provisions are
made for the training of the religious leaders of Christianity. The frequent
instances of attack on churches and religious symbols in the North are clearly
connected with this basic injustice and disregards for the fundamental human
religious rights of many of the citizens in the North. Until we sort this out, I
am afraid; we shall continue to hear bad news in many of these Northern States.
5. Fake “Human Rights”
Third and finally, I am very much
concerned about the so called “new Human Rights” that we keep hearing about now
especially from strong lobby groups that seem to have taken control of the United
Nations and its agencies, largely with their bases in the Western Countries of
Europe and America. Many of these so called Human Rights actually contradict
the basic rights that we have all already agreed upon in the classical
fundamental human rights of humanity.
The first and obvious example is
where abortion is being presented as a right of the woman which the state must
fund from public resources. The eyes are deliberately closed to the fact that
every abortion entails the killing of an innocent human being. Every law that
permits abortion simply means that your human life is sacred only when you can fight
for yourself. For as long as the modern world tolerates abortion as a right, we
are simply denying with one hand what we are proclaiming with the other.
Similarly, issues of sexuality for
example, homosexuality and same sex marriage are all now being proposed as “rights”.
This has never been so until recent years. The responsibility for this lies with
a small but powerful lobby doing all it can to impose these things on the whole
of humanity. The criminal aspect of this exercise is that some of the rich
nations are pressurizing poor countries to adopt these inhuman positions as a condition
for help and assistance. Nigeria has no business giving in to these pressures because
we have enough resources to feed our people. But I am not sure that there is an
adequate clear vision in these matters. I suspect that many of those who attend
big International meetings on our behalf are often very much unaware of the agenda
behind many programmes that appear on the surface very positive and good. The tendency
to use ambiguous terminology is often a way to deceive people into accepting
things that they would not have accepted when presented bluntly. Thus expressions
like “family planning”, “reproductive rights”, “safe motherhood” which are
valid and wonderful on their own, often hide the gruesome crime of abortion,
which is nothing less than the killing of innocent but defenseless human
beings.
I believe our country should be strong
enough to stand up to be counted and refuse to be led along a path that is at
the end of the day not even for the good of humanity.
These are some of my thoughts and I wish
your association God’s blessing.
+John Onaiyekan CON
ARCHBISHOP OF ABUJA
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