“We worry that whilst Nigeria under the current administration is rapidly becoming like the Yoweri Museveni type of tyranny, the world leaders are not particularly interested in mounting legitimate pressure on the Nigerian president to respect the nation’s obligations to human rights and all international human rights treaties,” HURIWA said.
The Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) of Nigeria is worried that Nigeria under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is “rapidly becoming like the Yoweri Museveni type of tyranny”.
In a press statement released by Emmanuel Onwubiko, National Coordinator, and Zainab Yusuf, National Media Affairs Director, the group called on world leaders to stop the crackdown of the Buhari administration on political opposition in the country.
HURIWA condemned as “despicable abuse of power”, the recent arrest of the erstwhile Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam and Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
The rights group lamented that the current administration is transforming itself into a brutal dictatorship, and charged Nigerians to defend the country’s democracy and stop it from being demolished by the incumbent President.
“We worry that whilst Nigeria under the current administration is rapidly becoming like the Yoweri Museveni type of tyranny, the world leaders are not particularly interested in mounting legitimate pressure on the Nigerian president to respect the nation’s obligations to human rights and all international human rights treaties,” HURIWA said.
“The arrest of vocal political opposition is antithetical to constitutional democracy because democracy is anchored on free speech and respect for the fundamental human rights of all citizens as enshrined in the Constitution, the Universal declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Human and Peoples RIGHTS.
“The current dispensation has become an administration whose head of the executive arm of government had since the last three years embarked on a destructive voyage of emasculating and muzzling the judiciary and the legislature even as independent opinions in the organized civil society are either bought over or intimidated or harassed into silence.”
HURIWA condemned the tendency of the presidency to ridicule the legislature, and its use of brute force and subtle threats to blackmail the judiciary into an uncomfortable compromise and silence as against the unambiguous provisions of the constitution in sections 4, 5 and 6, which state that as a constitutional democracy, Nigeria must run a check and balance system.
“The current government has not only disrespected the clear provisions of the constitution on federal character principle on appointments into strategic military and security positions, but Mr. President has succeeded in handing over the entire national security offices to Hausa/Fulani/Kanuri Moslems, which is now a well-organized set up to be deployed to haunt and harass political opposition and all those who share a difference of politico, socio-cultural and religious ideology,” it added.
“This speedy self-destructive drive to dictatorship will not do Nigeria any good but would inevitably lead to an implosion and God forbid that democracy collapses in Nigeria, Africa cannot accommodate the number of refugees that will pour out of Nigeria massively.”