Repression of human rights worsening in Nigeria – Human Rights Watch

Attack on human rights is worsening in Nigeria, the Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international non-governmental organisation concerned with human rights matters around the globe, has said.

In its 2022 World Report, which reviews human rights trends and developments in more than 100 countries in the world, the organization said the ban on Twitter in June 2021, was indicative of worsening human rights issues in Nigeria.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had suspended the operations of Twitter in Nigeria after a controversial tweet by him was deleted by the microblogging site.

The government insisted that its action was unconnected to the taking down of Mr Buhari’s tweet but was based on alleged roles of the site in fuelling insecurity, fake news, and separatist activities in the country.

Government’s attempt to rationalise the justification were not accepted, with leading democratic nations like the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and others condemning it as an attack on freedom of expression.

After seven months, the government announced the lifting of the suspension on January 12, after reaching some agreements with Twitter.

But in its 752-page report, the 32nd edition of its World Report, launched on January 13, HRW said the Twitter suspension was a sign of human rights repression in the country.

“The Nigerian government’s ban on Twitter in June, after the social media company deleted a tweet by President Muhammed Buhari for violating its rules, signaled a worsening repression of fundamental rights in the country,” the report read in part.

The report recalled that the ban was widely condemned by citizens who relied on the platform for critical social and political discourse.

Many Nigerians remained active on Twitter using virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent the ban even as the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, threatened to anyone by passing the ban.

In a decision delivered on June 22, the ECOWAS Court in Abuja stopped the government from taking any action against anyone or media houses still using Twitter.

Other freedom of expression issues

The report cited the Twitter ban as part of freedom of expression issues in Nigeria in 2021, along with the various media bills introduced by the government to firm up its grip on the media and their reportage in the year.

Nigerian media organisations responded in July 2021 by launching a campaign against what they termed as “Information Blackout” which they considered the bills and other tendencies of the government tried to achieve.

“Later that month, Nigeria’s broadcasting authority asked broadcast stations to stop reporting details of insecurity issues or details of victims so as not to jeopardise the efforts of the Nigerian military and other security agents,” the report added.

It also recalled the October 2021, clampdown on gatherings commemorating the first anniversary of the shooting by security forces in Lekki area of Lagos State during the October 2020 #EndSARS anti-police brutality protest.

“Security forces continued to disrupt #EndSARS related gatherings and protests,” it said.

A judicial panel of inquiry set up by the Lagos State government to look into the October 20, 2020 incident would later, in its report in November 2021, adjudge Nigerian soldiers to have massacred peaceful protesters at Lekki.

But the federal and Lagos State governments disputed the finding.

According to the report, there has yet to be accountability for violence and other abuses against protesters during the October 2020 #EndSARS protests against police brutality, including when security forces shot at peaceful protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos.

Other issues

The report also covered major Nigerian issues including the violence in the North-East, separatist agitations in the south, abuses by armed Islamists in the North-east, accountability for serious crimes, children matters and sexual orientation issues.

It noted that the reported death of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in June changed the dynamics of the conflict in the northeast and strengthened the breakaway Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

Citing a report of a Nigerian research organisation, SBM Intelligence, the report said “519 people were kidnapped and 22 people killed in kidnapping-related incidents in Northwestern Zamfara State alone, between January and June”.

It also referenced how communities in the North-west witnessed a spate of mass kidnappings of school children for ransom.

It referred to a report by Save the Children International, indicating that over 1,000 children were kidnapped between January and August 2021, by armed groups bandits.

Successive kidnappings of school children in the northern parts of the country, the report said, have impacted the number of children in school and presented an opportunity for families to force their daughters into early marriage.

It also noted that the trials for hundreds of Boko Haram suspects have been repeatedly postponed since 2019, and those that took place in the two preceding years were fraught with irregularities.

In December 2020, the report recalled, the International Criminal Court (ICC) determined that an ICC investigation is warranted for crimes committed in the Boko Haram-related conflict given inadequate domestic efforts to deliver justice for the crimes and after finding “reasonable basis to believe” the group, its breakaway factions, and Nigerian security forces had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The report also touched on the devastating economic impact of COVID-19 in the country, saying “the number of citizens experiencing hunger more than doubled during the pandemic” and Nigerians are still grappling with the aftermath.

According to the report, separatist agitations of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the South-east and Yoruba nation separatists in the South-west also “highlighted the worsening divisions and tensions in the country, to which the authorities sometimes responded with excessive use of force”.

It added that sexual orientation and gender identity shows that the country’s laws, Sharia and secular criminalise same-sex relations with death and 14 years in prison penalties respectively.

HRW’s Executive Director, Kenneth Roth, wrote in the introductory essay on the report, “that autocratic leaders across the world faced significant backlash in 2021, but democracy will flourish in the contest with autocracy only if democratic leaders do a better job of addressing global problems.”

Mr Roth wrote that in countries across the world, large numbers of people have recently taken to the streets, even at the risk of being arrested or shot showing that the appeal of democracy remains strong.

He added that elected leaders need to do a better job of addressing major challenges to show that democratic government delivers on its promised dividends.