Nigeria continues to lag behind in protecting the fundamental rights of its citizens, recording poor scores across key indicators measuring access to food, healthcare, housing, education, employment and civil liberties, according to a new global human rights assessment.
Data released by the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), an independent international non-profit organisation, show that Africa’s most populous country remains in the “very bad” category on several economic and social rights indicators despite modest improvements in some areas over the past two decades.
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The findings are contained in HRMI’s 2026 Rights Tracker report, seen by PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday, which evaluates countries’ performance in fulfilling economic, social, civil and political rights relative to their available resources.
Among the most striking findings is Nigeria’s score of just 5.8 per cent for the right to quality education, the second-lowest score recorded globally.
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According to HRMI, the score indicates that Nigeria is achieving only 5.8 per cent of what it should be capable of delivering in education outcomes, given its current level of income.
The findings come amid longstanding concerns about Nigeria’s education sector. Despite years of government interventions, the country continues to grapple with one of the world’s largest populations of out-of-school children, while poor infrastructure, inadequate funding and disruptions to academic activities have continued to affect learning outcomes.
The report also paints a troubling picture of living conditions for many Nigerians. The country scored 58.6 per cent on the right to food, 48.8 per cent on health, 41 per cent on housing and 34.9 per cent on the right to work.
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HRMI classified all four scores as “very bad”, suggesting that millions of Nigerians continue to face significant barriers in accessing basic necessities and economic opportunities.
The country’s weakest performance was recorded in the right to work.
According to the organisation, the score reflects persistent obstacles to decent employment opportunities and broader economic inclusion.
“The rights we measure are absolutely fundamental,” HRMI Co-Executive Director Thalia Kehoe Rowden said.
“Nigeria’s leaders will need to make significant changes to improve their people’s quality of life. Better lives for its people are within its grasp, if leaders choose to take action.”
Slow progress in healthcare
Although the report noted some progress in health outcomes over the last two decades, it said improvements have been slow and uneven.
Nigeria’s reproductive health score stood at 22 per cent, substantially lower than its adult health score of 57.1 per cent and child health score of 67.2 per cent.
The disparity suggests that gains recorded in some areas of healthcare have not translated into broader improvements in reproductive health services, which remain a major challenge in the country.
The findings come at a time when Nigeria’s health sector continues to face multiple challenges, including inadequate funding, shortages of medical personnel and the migration of doctors and nurses to other countries in search of better working conditions.
Concerns over state abuses
The report also highlighted continuing concerns regarding civil and political rights.
Nigeria scored 5.9 out of 10 on HRMI’s Safety from the State index, which measures protection against arbitrary arrest, torture and ill-treatment, forced disappearance, extrajudicial killings and other forms of abuse linked to state authorities.
According to HRMI, the score indicates that many Nigerians remain vulnerable to one or more of these violations.
Human rights experts consulted as part of the research identified journalists, human rights defenders and individuals suspected of involvement in political violence or terrorism as groups facing heightened risks of rights violations by state actors.
The findings add to concerns repeatedly raised by rights groups over shrinking civic space and the treatment of journalists, activists and government critics. In recent years, media organisations and civil society groups have documented cases involving arrests, detention and harassment of individuals for expressing critical views or participating in public protests.
The concerns also echo findings by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which has continued to record thousands of complaints relating to insecurity, unlawful detention, gender-based violence and other rights violations across the country.
Political freedoms remain stagnant
The report found little progress in the protection of political and civic freedoms.
Nigeria scored 5.6 out of 10 on HRMI’s Empowerment Index, which measures respect for freedoms of expression, assembly, political participation, religion and belief.
The organisation said rights protections in these areas have remained largely stagnant since 2023.
Human rights experts interviewed for the assessment identified opposition political parties and their members as groups potentially vulnerable to rights violations.
Those mentioned include the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the National Democratic Party and the Labour Party.
Ms Rowden said the findings should serve as a warning to policymakers.
“The new scores must be a call to action,” she stated.
“The current situation unnecessarily deprives many people of their basic rights. Nigeria has the wealth available to ensure much better lives for many more of its people.”
Nigeria below regional average
Beyond the individual indicators, HRMI explained that Nigeria performs worse than the average country in Sub-Saharan Africa on quality-of-life measures when assessed against what is achievable at its level of income.
The organisation said this suggests that the country’s human rights outcomes are not solely a consequence of economic limitations but also reflect policy choices and governance challenges.
The latest findings largely mirror HRMI’s previous assessments of Nigeria, which have consistently pointed to weak performance across several economic, social and political rights indicators despite the country’s status as one of Africa’s largest economies.
For civil and political rights, HRMI said insufficient regional data made direct comparisons across African countries difficult. However, Nigeria’s performance on both Safety from the State and Empowerment rights was found to be broadly similar to the average among countries included in the global sample.
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The Federal Government of Nigeria under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, has not yet responded to the report findings as of the time of filing this report.
HRMI’s Rights Tracker is a global database that measures governments’ human rights performance using internationally recognised methodologies. The organisation said its data are used by institutions including Amnesty International, the World Bank and the United Nations.
The report’s findings are likely to renew debates about the gap between Nigeria’s economic potential and the realities faced by millions of citizens, particularly in areas such as education, healthcare, employment and the protection of fundamental freedoms.
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